Scrapbook
by NHunter
Summary: This is a burrow of my plot bunnies. Random ideas live here, so beware. AU/AR/AT/AD etc. warnings. specific warnings will be if needed in the chapters. Rated M just in case.
1. Harry Potter :: CoS alternation

Hello, everyone, and welcome to my scrapbook. I hope that you will like these random ideas that I spawn. all of them - if I'm not saying otherwise - are adoptable - just PM me if you want to use one of them. **Reviews **and other comments **are welcomed**.  
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HP :: CoS alternation**

With a hissing sound of magic, contained in the undistinguished half-century old diary, destroyed by one of the most post venom in existence, world of one Harry Potter went black: he too was poisoned by the same basilisk venom he used to destroy this bloody diary.

"So, how does it feel, to be completely helpless?" Tom Riddle, better known as lord Voldemort, ridiculed him. "Though, I hate to admit that if you did this just several minutes earlier, you might have had me killed... But the victo-..." Now Harry couldn't hear too. Hell, the only thing he could feel was the white-hot pain in his body. Just ten or so more seconds and he will see his dead parents again... Or... Pain started to cease and the world slowly returned to him, with a feeling of hot and heavy bird crying on his wounded shoulder.

"Fawkes?" The boy-who-lived asked in surprise.

"Damned phoenix!" Tom threw a nasty ash-gray curse at the bird, but the phoenix flew into the air, effectively evading whatever that curse was. "Damned phoenix and its healing tears!!!" Several more curses none of which were familiar to Harry were sent at Fawkes, making him keep his distance from the boy, so the bird settled for flying just under the ceiling and singing for Harry. "Worry not, spawn of the Potters, I will personally see that you will meet your mudblood of mother today." Voldemort showed Harry his wand, before aiming it at him. "_**Avada kedavra!**_" On pure instincts Harry managed to dodge green beam of killing curse. Picking up the sword of Gryffindor, he wished he had some kind of a ranged weapon. Than he felt a 'heartbeat' coming from the sword.

"What the?.." Right in front of his eyes two-handed sword morphed into equally magnificent-looking boomerang with one and a half feet long blades. Harry saw that his opponent was too distracted by this transformation to continue his attacks, so the boy used this opportunity and threw his weapon at Riddle. But as soon as tom saw the attack, he sidestepped the boomerang.

"Pathetic. Did you really think that suck a ridiculous, muggle, attack can harm great lord Voldemort? Now, die, fool! _**Avada kedavra!**_" Harry, again by sheer luck, dodged the killing curse. He was too caught in his attempts to survive to see the boomerang returning. Suddenly he heard Tom hissing in pain and cursing him in parseltongue. Looking up, Harry saw Voldemort collapsing onto the stone floor of the chamber with a boomerang sticking from his back. Apparently, the blades were now coated in basilisk venom... Just thirty seconds later, at least this one, Tom Riddle was no more, disappearing in a black smoke, leaving nothing after himself. Harry picked his wand and immediately ran to Ginny's side. The girl was still unconscious and as pale as she was when he entered this damned chamber. He put his hand on her forehead. It was barely warm – the girls was alive, at least. He again felt Fawkes land on his shoulder. Deciding, that it was imperative, to bring her to the medic, Harry picked the boomerang, which, with another 'heartbeat', transformed back into its sword form, picked the sorting hat, destroyed diary and finally returned back to Ginny.

"Can you bring us back from here, eh, Fawkes?" To Harry's surprise, the phoenix sang something that could be interpret as a positive answer, and as soon as Harry grabbed Ginny's hand, the chamber of secrets disappeared from his view in a flash of fire. Now they were in the infirmary and immediately greeted by madam Pomfrey who rushed to the girl's side. "Don't worry, I'll be returning back. I just need to speak with headmaster right now." Harry said, and Fawkes transported him to Dumbledore's office. "Can you find Ron and Lockhart and bring them there too?" Phoenix nodded and disappeared in a flash of flames.

*******

More than two hours later one tired to death Harry Potter stumbled back into the infirmary. He just survived through all but interrogation by Dumbledore, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ron and Lucius Malfoy about the events that took place in the chamber, as well as his personal 'skirmish' with the elder Malfoy which resulted in freeing house elf named Dobby.

"How's she?" Harry asked weakly, falling onto his personal bed.

"Not good." Madam Pomfrey answered from Ginny's bed. "She'll live, sure, but her life was almost completely drained from her. Tomorrow she'll be moved to St. Mungo's and even with everything they have, I'm afraid, it'll take years before she will be completely healed from this."

'_At least she is alive..._' Harry thought, nodding, and then immediately fell asleep from the exhaustion...


	2. Harry Potter :: OotP addition

**HP :: OotP addition**

Harry entered the main 'hall' of the chamber of secrets – enormous room with two rows of columns near the center line holding rather high ceiling. The chamber also had enormous stone face on the wall opposite the entrance and a statue of Salazar Slytherin a bit to the right of it. The boy stopped at the center of the chamber and closed his eyes: he progressed much, but it was still hard to speak parseltongue without visual...

"_**Come to me, Shasa.**_" He finally hissed. For several moments nothing happened, but then an enormous greenish-gray snake with her eyes destroyed slitted into the chamber through the mouth of the stone face.

"_**You called for me, young master?**_" Shasa the basilisk hissed to Harry and then yawned. As her mouth was open, it was possible to see a scar on the roof of her mouth as well as the difference between her fangs: one was much shorter than the other.

"_**Yes, Shasa...**_" The boy replied as the basilisk coiled around him lovingly... Well, as much as six feet thick forty meters long snake can coil around single and not so big teenager. "_**...I found the way to repair your sight. You might not be able to petrify or kill this way anymore, but at least you'll be able to see again.**_" Harry liked Shasa, she always kept his company when he needed it most... A little more than a year ago, just a little after his name appeared from the goblet of fire, he tried to hide from the people here, and found that the basilisk of the chamber of secrets was alive – but then again, who would believe that a single wound from a sword through the mouth would be enough to kill thousand years old serpent? - Shasa bonded to him there and made him her new master and from that moment their friendship grew... Harry concentrated and, with some difficulty, conjured new eyes for Shasa.

"_**Thank you, master.**_" The basilisk hissed. She looked at her master. "_**You seem to be troubled, young master.**_" Shasa observed with her new eyes watching dark-haired teenager.

"_**True. After the events of that stupid tournament ministry is trying to make me look like I'm insane. They've sent their agent to Hogwarts as a teacher and she turns my life into nightmare. Many people think that I'm either insane or just dangerous...**_" The mighty serpent uncoiled from her master and slitted a bit towards the entrance of the chamber.

"_**Shall I teach them not to anger you, master?**_" The basilisk asked.

"_**No. You'll be discovered and they'll hunt you down. You're my friend, Shasa, and I don't want to see you harmed.**_" Harry hissed, trying to stop her from going on killing spree.

"_**What shall I do then, young master?**_"

"_**Right now... Just keep my company, Shasa...**_" There was a short pause. "_**Tell me more about Salazar and other founders, will you?**_" The basilisk nodded and returned to her master, before starting her tale.

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Several hours later Harry entered great hall. His eyes went along staff table and passed by toad-like Umbridge woman, reminding him that no matter how good story teller his Shasa was, the storied were just that, stories. Reality was a different thing...


	3. Naruto & Claymore crossover :: teaser 1

As this one is a teaser for my future story, this episode IS NOT adoptable

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**Naruto/Claymore crossover :: hanyou-Naruto/human-Clare/Hilda :: teaser scene 1**

Winter this year was very cold and even now, three month after winter solstice, weather was trying to freeze humans to death with small prickly snow, that was constantly falling from low gray sky, and strong cold winds. Yet, even in this weather there were travelers on the roads...

Two pairs of figures, clad in almost identical dark-gray cloaks with their faces hidden by the hoods entered small village in the eastern lands. If one was enough observant, he would see that there was a grown woman in each pair, a grown woman with giant sword hidden under her cloak to be exact. Each woman also had a teen as companion, but nothing more could be said at this point...

As the village travelers entered was small, just two streets and about two dozens of houses, the pairs were bound to meet each other. And they met... Faster than any unlucky villager who was outside and could see this, women drew their swords and attacked each other. Their blades met with a loud 'clang'.

"Did organization send you to finish me off?" They asked synchronously. Upon hearing each others' question and voice, they lowered their claymores.

"T-Teresa?"

"Irene?" Indeed, as they revealed their faces, they recognized old battle friends in each other... Women simultaneously looked at the teens that were traveling with them. The boy that came with Irene had twin, dangerously glowing with red malevolent aura, daggers in reverse grip in his hands. Teresa's companion held a short sword in front of her with both hands.

"Clare?" Elf-like looking warrior, Irene, said and the girl looked up at her. "Naruto, stand down. We are not fighting here." After waiting for several seconds, boy named Naruto let the aura around his daggers to dissipate into the air, before he sheathed his weapons. Clare too sheathed her sword then... And there was awkward silence for some time, until Teresa spoke.

"Let's drop in the inn." She proposed, pointing at the only inn in the village.

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As the four entered the inn, they sat down to table, warrior facing warrior and teen facing teen. And as every one of them removed cloaks one could see more details about them. The one who stood out most was Naruto, Irene's surrogate son. He was barely thirteen years old boy, who had unruly golden hair, cerulean eyes and six whisker-like marks on his cheeks. He was wearing black sheepskin coat over light-brown, almost orange, jacket, warm brown pants with sheaths for his daggers attached to them and warm boots. His gloves were lying on his backpack just behind his back.

"So... You're Clare? Irene-okaa-san told me a lot about the girl who wormed her way into warriors heart." He said, making the girl blush a bit. Clare was about sixteen-seventeen years old girl, only inch or two taller than Naruto, with brown eyes and light-brown waist-long hair. She was dressed in gray sweater, long brown skirt over warm pants, and rather short brown boots with fur list on a small heels. Her sword was attached to her waist on the left side. "Nice to meet you." Naruto said, making her blush a bit more.

"Nice to meet you too, N-Naruto-san." Clare responded. As teen were learning each other, warriors were talking about their own things...

"Teresa, how did you survive? I thought I was the only warrior alive to come out of that battle." Ex-number three of the organization, Quicksword Irene, asked. She was dressed in the dark-brown bodysuit with lots of straps and heeled boots of the same dark-blown color with more straps. On her left hip there was an armor plate. All in all, her clothes along with her pointy ears made her look like an elf. Ex-number one, Teresa of the faint smile, chuckled softly.

"I guess, I was lucky that day." Woman moved her hair, showing nasty scar on the left side of her neck, the scar that even warrior's power couldn't completely heal. This was the scar that the strongest awakened being in the annals of history, Priscilla, gave her in the battle... "Yeah, if I were even a little bit slower, I'd be dead... I'm really sorry that Sophie and Noel died that day." Teresa brushed her hair back, hiding the scar behind them, and she again looked like a beautiful woman a little older than twenty. Like Irene, she was dressed rather lightly, in dark-gray battle kimono with intricate incuts of chainmail, forming two 'dancing' chinese dragons and, like her ward, Teresa was wearing boots with fur list on small heels, only dark-gray. "But tell me what, Irene, was it hallucination, or I really did feel yoki coming from that Naruto boy?"

"Yes, Naruto-kun really does have yoki, but he is neither yoma nor he is anything like us. I never understood how, but his yoki comes from the strange tattoo that sometimes appears on his stomach." Irene answered after waiter took their orders. "And he tells that there is giant fox with nine tails inside him. Weird."

"Indeed." Teresa nodded. "So, you too are on the run from the organization? Maybe we should stick together?"


	4. Harry Potter :: PoA aftermath addition

**HP :: PoA aftermath addition**

Narcissa sighed and touched her water-repelling cloak up and stepped from the awning of the bus stop she apparated to into the downpour. Such a weather, it'd be so good to be sitting in the manor now, drinking tea and reading a good book, but she had a mission and right now the chances she succeeds were the best. The witch again cursed muggles for they lived in identical houses, as she tried to find the one she needed... Finally she saw what she was looking for.

'_Number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. He must be here._' She approached the door of the house and knocked softly on the door. Narcissa heard someone approach the door, cursing the weather, some freak and people in general all the time. She heard the locks and then the door opened, revealing really large man, that had some resemblance with walrus, with angry-red face.

"We don't need any of your..." The man finally saw her, and his face went from red to purple. "You?! What do you need?!" He spat out, while trying to discretely reach for his golf club with his left hand. Of course, he failed at least 'discretely' part... Narcissa tried to think of an answer that will allow her to enter without resolving to magic.

"I'm here to see Potter. Depending on how things will go, he may be in a lot of problems." These words made man's face return to being just red. The witch felt the tension of the wards, but the thing soon relaxed, as she meant no real harm to the boy.

"Fine. Be quick, he has evening chores to do. And if there is even one sound from there, or if I find even a single broken thing, you will pay." He hissed. Narcissa nodded and stepped into, doing her best not to curse the man into the next millennium: Potter may not be pureblood or even on the side she wanted him to be, but, hell, he lived like a house elf! - no wizard, even halfblood, who descended from an old and noble house, like Potters, should be treated like this. Not waiting for the man to show her way, the witch went directly to the smallest bedroom, orienting by the magical signature the boy emitted...

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Harry sat on his chair, staring through the window at the rain outside; he was so deep in his thoughts, that he didn't even hear the door into his room open... Only knocking on the door of his wardrobe finally caught his attention. Turning around, he saw a woman with long blond hair and aristocratic face in expensive clothes standing there. It took him several seconds to remember who she was.

"What do you need, Mrs. _Malfoy_?" He asked crossly. Narcissa did a step towards him.

"Why such animosity, Potter? I came here to ask for your help." Harry raised his eyebrow questioningly, but said nothing, so the witch continued. "I'm sure you know what happened in the shrieking shack at the end of this school year."

"Sirius Black..." The boy whispered. "I'm not selling him out!" He said then forcefully, making Narcissa chuckle – first sign of emotions she showed.

"How noble, maybe you aren't that bad, after all... But no, I won't ask you to _rat_ him." Harry again just raised his eyebrow at her words. "You might not know this, but I am Black by birth and Sirius happens to be my cousin. Blacks may be dark family, evil too sometimes, but for the Blacks family was always something of the highest priority. Now that there are certain questions about Sirius and they way he got to the Azkaban, there is a chance of him being innocent. And if that's true, we may clear his name."

"You want me to work with you to save Sirius, am I right?" Narcissa nodded. "I will agree if you make the vow that you will not do any harm to Sirius, me or my friends by this."

"You are too Slytherin to be a Gryffindor _Golden boy_, Potter, but that is acceptable." The witch said. Inside she was rather surprised that the boy was trying to take measures against betrayal, instead of rushing after the chance.

"If I may be rude, Mrs. _Malfoy_, your son is the reason I'm not in the Slytherin house." Narcissa looked at him, even more surprised.

"How so, Potter?"

"He made an impression that Slytherin is a house of ponces and bullies. I _hate_ bullies." The witch sighed. She didn't want to discuss her Draco here, nor, from what she could pick form the boy, Potter wanted.

"Anyway, Hogwarts problems aside, do we have an agreement? We can discuss exact wording of the vow as well as the details later." Harry reluctantly nodded. "Good. As a sign of a good will you may keep those." Narcissa gestured towards two stones with runes that lied on the either side of the door. "Those stones prevent any sound from leaving the room." The boy nodded 'thank you'. "Right now I have to go, I will owl you with the details as soon as possible. Vow wording too..." She was ready to leave, but then remembered something. "You may want to play wounded for several days. Your muggles think that I came to harm you, Potter." She walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "I'm looking forward to working with you, Potter. May our partnership bring the result we desire." Then she disapparated, leaving confused and slightly blushing Harry alone in his room.

*******

"What were you doing, Narcissa?" Lucius asked as soon as she entered the manor.

"I was working on clearing the name of Sirius Black."

"And how will it help us, woman?!" Lucius wasn't happy with this, no questions there, but Narcissa wasn't true Black for nothing, she though of everything.

"You claimed to be under Imperius curse, Lucius. If Black is innocent and you help him clear his name, it will further people in this belief." She saw that he was calming down and actually thinking about this. "You might have to work with Potter on this, but if you manage to hide your animosity for the boy, it will make his fame working for you too. Malfoy family will be seen in an even better light after this, so your _works_ will be under less suspicion."

"This is... acceptable." Lucius finally said. "I agree with your plan, but next time tell me about it first." Narcissa nodded.

"Yes, Lucius." She said even if she wasn't intent of always doing so. The man nodded.

"If I'm needed, I'll be in the study."

*******

Harry walked down the ladder, false-limping on his right leg, to make dinner.

"You are still alive, boy?" Vernon asked, clearly wanting Harry and his ..._freakishness_ out of his house and life.

"Yes, uncle."

"Too bad. But don't think that this will save you from doing your chores, you, good-for-nothing freak."

"Wouldn't dream of it..." Harry said very quietly.

"What did you say, Boy?!" Vernon asked angrily.

"I said, 'Of course', uncle." The man nodded.

"Now be quick into the kitchen and prepare great dinner before Petunia and Dudley return. And no freakishness!" Harry sighed.

"Yes, uncle."


	5. Claymore :: Hilda's awakening

**Claymore :: Hilda's awakening**

Number six of the organization was walking through the forest near the northern border of the central region. For several day she was just doing patrolling there: no yoma or awakened being were spotted in these lands in the last days... Thinking that there will be no immediate threat to her there, Hilda allowed herself to relax a bit and not pay too much attention to her senses... So she barely had any time to draw her claymore to protect herself from the meaty tentacle that attacked her from behind one of the trees.

"She is good." The demon said, assuming its awakened form: large creature with four legs forming rough square, rather long bend forward body with two pairs of arms, each ending with foot long sharp claws, small insect-like head, and two sets of tentacles growing from each side of its back. "**I dare say she can give us some hard time.**" As if one awakened being of such caliber wasn't enough for her, Hilda felt another aura released behind her back.

"**Do not worry, this little chick will die.**" Turning around, Hilda saw something resembling enormous mole-cricket with a dog's head. This awakened being had several sharp-looking spikes on its thick legs.

"Damn!" Number six immediately went up to twenty percent: there was no change in the hell that she could even protect herself from these two while using less yoki...

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...Even on eighty percent these two still seemed to be too much for a single warrior. And with all wound she got, Hilda had problems keeping her conscious from slipping past non-return point: she did not want to awaken! She dodged two spikes that mole-cricket sent at her and immediately had to make other awakened being lose four more tentacles. She had to retreat NOW, or these two will either kill her, or, worse, push past limits and into awakening. Hilda looked around for any way to do so: once serene and beautiful forest around the road was smashed down and shopped into pieces during their battle, and with her opponents on different sides from her, she had no chance in reaching trees without them to stop her first. Killed by just two, rather pathetic for the number six, but then again, these two awakened beings were certainly above average... Suddenly she found such a strong will to live, live no matter what, that it shattered her control over her yoki, making it go past limits. Two awakened beings looked at each other.

"**She... awakens!**" Mole-cricket one roared with some fear – whatever this warrior will awaken into, judging by her aura, might easily crash them... Hilda's form started growing, her uniform torn apart, her skin became dark olive-green and her short blond hair morphed into several long ribbons. New awakened being - fifty feet tall colossus of a woman - moved her hand, sending the claymore flying somewhere into the yet to be destroyed forest. Hilda looked at two her opponents, angry now that they made her awaken. She reached for the tentacle-wielding one and, despite its fierce attacks in attempts to preserve its live, crashed it into the ground, leaving only a mess of demonic flesh and purplish blood there. As she deemed the first awakened being being dealt with, Hilda turned to the other one, overgrown mole-cricket, that was trying to run away from her. But the massive creature had no chances in outrunning humanoid form of the former number six and was soon caught by the ribbons that were her hair and lifted into the air. Then Hilda ripped in into two pieces and, dropping them onto the ground, stomped in them... Now, with the threat gone, she was at lost what to do... So Hilda allowed her nature to bring her wherever it thought she should go. For some reason her feet brought her to the very same mountain where she fought alongside with her 'little sister' Miria for the last time. And now it was rather quite place, something she was looking forward to right now... Human guts can wait for now...


	6. Harry Potter :: GoF alternation

**HP :: GoF alternation**

"And Beauxbaton champion will be... " Dumbledore announced, waiting for the goblet to give him name. Finally, red flames threw burnt parchment into the air where old headmaster caught it. "...Will be Fleur Delacour!" The most beautiful of the french girl stood up and walked towards the door to the small room attached to the great hall where other two champions were, surprisingly Beauxbaton students didn't applaud her too much... "Now, that our champions are selected, let continue the feast." Dumbledore was ready to sit down and resume his meal, when he goblet getting ready to produce one more parchment from its fiery depths. How was this possible? Flear already reached the door when she heard goblet throwing another parchment with the name into the air, so she stopped and turned around: like everyone else she was interested, who could confund such a powerful artifact to find a way into the tournament. "...Unbelievable, but the goblet of fire decided to add forth champion and he is... Harry Potter." The great hall immediately became as quiet as a tomb with everyone looking at the dark-haired teen of thirteen-fourteen years old with red-and-gold on his uniform that hit the table with his head.

"Le petit présomptueux garçon." Fleur said under her breath, watching the boy. At the same time entire great hall exploded with the indignation. Headmaster Dumbledore tried to calm everyone down, but had little success. Suddenly Beauxbaton champion saw this Harry Potter sigh and cast some spell on himself, sonorus charm most probably. Interesting.

"**Can I have some of your attention, please?**" Le petit présomptueux garçon said with his magically-amplified voice, standing up. "**I know how much everyone believes me there, so let me do this...**" Fleur was at loss, she couldn't understand now what this boy was trying to do... "**I, Harry James Potter do swear on my honor, my magic...**" Part-veela girl raised her eyebrow: what the hell was going on? "**...And my life that I did not put my name into the goblet, I did not levitate, banish, throw or otherwise deliver parchment with my name into the goblet without crossing the line...**" Fleur could count at least two dozens people who hit the tables with their head, obviously from the fact that they didn't even think about trying any of this. Well, at least this Harry Potter had a good-working head on his shoulders... "**...Nor did I ask any students, teachers, staff, elves or other magical creatures...**" More people hitting tables with their heads. "**...To put my name into the goblet. Nor do I even want to take part in this tournament... So mote it be.**" There was a flash of magic, signifying that the oath was accepted. Several seconds later a group of people at the green-and-silver table moaned in disappointment when Harry Potter didn't drop onto the floor dead. The boy, however, wasn't finished. He canceled sonorus charm and... "_**Expecto patronum!**_" A beautiful stag made of white and silver mist jumped from the boy's wand. Patronus looked around and, seeing no immediate danger to the caster, walked to the doors of the hall, before breaking into the mist and disappearing.

"Horriblement!" Fleur whispered. She, seventeen years old witch, still couldn't summon corporeal patronus, at this little... er-... this wizard did this easily. And he barely looked fourteen she knew he – the boy who lived – must be.

"Potter!!!" Beauxbaton champion looked at the greasy Hogwarts professor, who was screaming at the ...le petit wizard. "Three hundred points from Gryfindor and month of detentions with Filch for your cheek. Effective immediately. Get lost from this hall you insolent little brat!!!" The man spit out. Fleur raised her eyebrow. From what they were told about Hogwarts, one house rarely finished the year with more that four and a half hundreds points. To take three hundreds for this... it was just too much.

"Now, now, Severus, I believe, Harry needs to be at the briefing for champions tonight." Dumbledore said, raising from his seat. "Harry, my boy, please, join the rest of the champions for the rest of the dinner." What? And the headmaster did nothing about this unfair punishment? Fleur shook her head: Englishmen were strange...


	7. NGE :: Bird on the run :: teaser 1

This is the first teaser to the Evangelion story I, actually, planned quite some time ago - you can't use this in your works! pairing is Shinji/Arael (fifteenth angel). Adam's appearance is based on the one of Van Hohenheim from "Full Metal Alchemist" - just for you all to know.

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NGE :: "Bird on the run" :: teaser 1**

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The Third Child calmly walked into the central dogma that looked like a disturbed anthill. Maybe, angel-attack siren that was ringing had something to do with this local chaos...

"Thanks God, Shinji, you're there! I thought you had business at NERV today, what took you this long?" Misato asked. "Anyway, you can answer that later, get to your EVA. We have an angel at the HQ, find and destroy it! Rei is already there." The boy looked at the major and shook his head.

"No, Katsuragi-shousa." Misato looked at him shocked.

"What do you mean 'No'?! We have an angel attack! There is no time for your games!!!" She yelled. Shinji sighed and shook his head again.

"There is no attack, Katsuragi-shousa." He said. Before the major could ask him any more questions, another person entered the central dogma: Arael, still in her human form, surrounded by a white glow floated in.

"Good day, lilim. I think I'm entirely the reason for this mess... I'm thirteenth child, Arael, by the way." The angel floated to the Shinji's side, 'forcing' Misato to do several steps back. The woman reached for her pistol and did several shots at Arael, who simply raised hexagonal AT Field, shielding both herself and Shinji. "Cease fire, please."

"Why should I do this, _angel_?" The major spat out.

"I mean no harm." Arael said, taking boy's hand in her own. "If I were to attack you, you'd already be vegetables." She looked at the woman in front of her. "Misato Katsuragi... Your father was killed by _the Father_, as well as you got your deal of wounds from him... You have your rights for the hate, yet remember, child bears no sins of father." As Misato went into shock from her words, Arael continued. "I came here to declare the end of war, lilim. My mission here is complete." She did a short pause. "Before I go, I wanted you to meet _the Father_ and _the Mother_, or you may know them as Adam and Lilith. This is a great distinction, lilim, do show them hospitality." Arael then spiked her energy levels, like giving a signal. Moments later two more people walked into the central dogma. One of them was tall dark-blond tan-skinned male with his hair in a ponytail, he too had a short beard and mustaches. He had a light-brown cloak on with the hood down. Accompanying him was bit shorter, pale female in a similar cloak. She had absolutely white, mid-back long hair and all in all looked much like Ayanami Rei... And both Adam and Lilith had golden, almost glowing, eyes.

"I-Impossible..." Misato said, looking at three angels that calmly stood in the central dogma.

"But yet they are here, Katsuragi-shousa." Shinji, who was still holding Arael's hand, replied. "The Father, the Mother and my Arael-chan. They came here to say 'Goodbye'." Fifteenth angel chose this moment to pull him to her, and then gave him brief loving kiss on his lips.

"I hope I will see you again soon, Shinji-kun." Arael then gently pushed him away and did a half-turn, taking smaller version of her bird form. She then 'flew' towards Adam and Lilith, and wrapped her 'wings' around them. "Goodbye, lilim." Her voice said, though, you couldn't really tell where it came from. Arael glowed brighter, almost turning into a ball of light, before disappearing without trace, taking _the Father_ and _the Mother_ with her... For more than a minute, the only sounds in the central dogma were buzzing of many terminals and MAGI and dieing down siren. Finally Misato came back to her senses. She looked at Shinji and narrowed her eyes.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, pilot Ikari." The boy gulped, but nodded.

"Y-Yes, Katsuragi-shousa."

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That's all for now, folks!


	8. Harry Potter :: postDH story

Hello, everyone.  
Here you go, another one of my plot bunnies. Although I plan to use it myself (ms. 'Cissa Black *wink*), you are free to use it as long as you give me the credit for it. =)

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**HP :: post-DH story**

* * *

Harry looked around the chamber. First part of the job was now finished and almost every inch of the floor of the chamber of Death in the department of mysteries was scribed with runic arrays. Four unspeakables that worked with him on this project were doing the final preparations for the array to be activated... True, during his Hogwarts day he didn't the ancient runes, feeling lazy, but after the war with Voldemort ended four years ago, Harry studied a lot and became really proficient with runes. Part of the reason for his studies was his wish to bring Sirius back. Or see if it wasn't possible... Finally unspeakables confirmed that the array was completed. It meant that after the short break for lunch, the first test would be ran...

Everyone took their places for the array activation: Harry was standing several meters from the mysterious arc with the veil, the unspeakables took places not far from the exit from the chamber. Everything was ready to conduct the experiment... Taking a silver dagger from its sheath on his belt, Harry cut his hand and dropped exactly twelve drops of blood onto the array, before sending his magic into the power runes as did unspeakables. There was a low buzzing sound and the dark chamber became illuminated with dim red light. Veil, until now wavering like there was a wind, became exactly straight and the voices from that sound became so loud, that even unspeakables, who were standing more than ten meters away, could hear it. For several seconds everything worked fine, but then first safeguard array flashed an angry red, before exploding.

"Everyone, run!" Harry shouted, as other two safeguard arrays flashed. Veil suddenly deformed, shifting into a ball. Then it began growing rapidly. Final two safeguard arrays exploded and the black ball of the portal, that once was veil, filled the chamber. Unspeakables managed to get away from it. Harry wasn't as lucky. When it was deemed save to reenter the chamber, veil was back in the arc, wavering with the ghostly wind...

* * *

Harry was surrounded by complete and absolute void. There was no light, no sounds, no smell... And he was falling through it. At least he was thinking he was falling... Finally, after what seemed to be several hours, a fast-growing spot of light appeared under him. When he reached it, he found himself in a place that shouldn't exist... From his childhood days he remembered, how the Milky way, the galaxy where humanity lived, should look. He was now floating in the open space, with the Milky way galaxies in every direction, hundreds of those. And there was a faint sound of heartbeat there. Even with the word '_magic_' Harry couldn't describe this place. A minute later the gravity finally kicked in again and he began falling towards one of the galaxies. Then to the one of the stars there.

'_The Sun._' Harry thought. Then – the the small green and blue with white clouds ball that was the Earth... Then he blackened out.

* * *

"Damn." He groaned, trying to sit up, failing miserably. His entire body was aching and his head felt like it was split open. He tried again, this time barely succeeding. He opened his eyes, but immediately closed them as the bright light hurt. And his glasses were missing. He searched around himself, finally finding them in about a foot from his head. Returning them to where they should be and shielding himself from the light, Harry opened his eyes again. Through the dotted glass he saw that it was an early morning and he was on the roof of an apartment block. He could see the sea, he presumed, to the west. Shrugging, he checked his things. His wand was in the holster, where it should be, his two orders of Merlin first class were still in his inner pocket, where he carried them and grim-fang amulet on a steel chain was still around his neck. As there were no muggles, who could see him, Harry drew his wand and repaired his glasses. Satisfied with the results, he shrugged and apparated to the 'Leaky cauldron'. It looked exactly like he remembered it, though, Tom seemed to have a couple more teeth than ...yesterday? '_Maybe he finally went to the dentist or something?_' The man was busy, making the breakfast and didn't see Harry enter the pub. Harry himself was in a hurry and, saying hello to the old man, went straight to the back yard. Tapping the needed brick three times, he entered the Diagon alley. It too was just as he remembered it. He approached the stand with newspapers.

"The _Daily prophet_, please." He said, placing six knuts onto the counter.

"Either take two or add two and take two _Prophets_." The man behind the counter barked. Harry was surprised: he didn't remember the _Prophet_ dropping the price two knuts, but who was he to complain, especially since now it was the newspapers one could believe. Taking his two knuts back, he accepted the newspapers from the seller. Suddenly, his eyes went across the date on the front page: 15 march 1976. Than Harry did the only thing you could do, when you find out that you were somehow thrown twenty five years into the past. He fainted.


	9. Harry Potter & Ikkitousen crossover

**Harry Potter/Battle Vixens (Ikkitousen) crossover :: the beginning**

_**AN**_: "_**Ikkitousen**_" timeline changed a bit, so that manga/anime events start at 1991-1992

* * *

Harry Potter, age eleven, confidently strolled along the Hogwarts express, looking for an empty compartment. He wore greenish scales-like waistcoat over black T-shirt, dark-gray cargo pants with his shrunk luggage sitting in one of the pockets here and white bandana that effectively covered his famous – or infamous – scar. Finally finding what he was looking for, the green-eyed wizard entered the forth car and sat in one of the compartments there. Looking at the watch, Harry was quite surprised, that it was still twenty minutes before eleven in the morning. He tried to doze off, but not a five minutes later he heard the door to his compartment slid open.

"Mind if we sit here?" A girlish voice asked. Opening his eyes, Harry saw two identical Indian girls. Not thinking for more than a moment, he shrugged and welcomed them in, helping them with their bags. The girls sat on across form him and one of them giggled.

"You are wearing an earring?" She asked. Harry instinctive reached out for the pearly claw-shaped gem he had in his left ear.

"It's a matagama." He responded.

"Mata-... what?" The girl asked, but before the dark-haired wizard could repeat himself, girl's twin explained, what it was.

"A matagama. In China those are the gems that contain spirits of the warriors of the past, of the era of the three kingdoms, to be exact." The clever twin said. "Though, I'm quite surprised to see one here, in England."

"Well... I actually live in Tokyo with my nii-san... adoptive brother, he somehow got me this one for my ninth birthday..." There was a short pause. "By the way, can I have your names, ladies?"

"We're Patil Padma..." The girl that explained matagamas to her sister said, gesturing at herself. "And Parvati." Now she pointing at her twin. "And you?" Harry took a deep breath, preparing himself for what was going to happen now.

"Harry of the Potter house." He said with a small bow. Both girls stared at him.

"A-Are you really?.." Parvati asked in shock. The dark-haired wizard lifted his bandana, showing them the scar instead of answering verbally. "But... Why are you living in Japan?" Harry sighed.

**flashback**

_In September nineteen eighty seven Vernon Dursley got very lucky as one of the Japanese companies got interested in his drills, who knows why... So he was invited to the conference in Tokyo where the contract might have been signed. But one man couldn't get all the luck, and he had no one to leave his freaky nephew with. In the end the man – though grumbling about wasting money of a good people – decided to bring Harry to Japan and dump him there: the freaks will not find him there... As the head of the Dursley family was plotting the final points of his plan, seven years old Harry was happy to go anywhere outside Little Whinging for the first time, completely unaware of what was awaiting him... _

_As soon as the four travelers were on the solid ground again, Vernon caught a taxi and asked the driver to go to some random ghetto first. The driver was surprised, but if he was paid, why should he care?.._

"_Go with me, boy." Vernon ordered, when the taxi stopped in the more 'rich' part of the Tokyo slums. The large man lead his nephew, who had all of his thing in a small bag in his hands, to the local park, and when he was sure that no one will see the, he simply knocked the boy unconscious and left him there...

* * *

_

"_Hey, kiddo, u'right?" Harry opened his eyes as someone was shaking his shoulder while speaking the language he didn't know. In front of him was dark-skinned boy of about twelve, thirteen maybe, as he was quite big. In a muscular way, not like his whale of a cousin... Oh, and this boy had strange pearly claw-like earring in his left ear. Groaning, Harry sat up._

"_Where am I?" The green-eyed boy asked. The older boy looked at him in surprise, before speaking in a so-so English._

"_Ya in Shinjuko Ghetto of Tokyo." Harry stared at him. "Wha do'ya doin' 'ere?"_

"_I was... dumped there." The older boy gave him a look that could be interpreted as a mixture between pity and understanding._

"_Why?" Harry took a deep breath, trying to decide whether to tell this boy or not. In the end, the 'say' option won the debate in boy's head._

"_They wanted to get rid of the freak."_

"_Ya look normal to me." The older boy said after looking at him for several seconds. Sighing, Harry told the boy why Dursleys thought that he was a freak._

"_Well... Strange things happen around me sometimes... My hair regrew overnight when I didn't like the haircut my aunt made..." He waited for the boy to call him a freak like his relatives do, but the reaction he got was nothing he expected._

"_Dat's cool. I wish I could do 'at. Ma hair 'r' damaged too of'en to look gud." The dark-skinned boy said. Then there was a small pause. "Ya have nowhere tu'go?" Harry reluctantly nodded. "Why don'cha come with me? I live alone 'n' it's kinda lonely." the dark-haired boy nodded again and got up. "What's ya name?"_

"_H-Harry Potter."_

"_Nice to meet'ya. I'm Tashiji Shigi." The older boy said, giving his new roommate a strong handshake._

**the end of the flashback**

"Well... I was moved there when I was seven. I don't really want to talk about why." Parvati still wanted to ask, but a glare form her cleverer twin shut her up. Suddenly the train gave the third whistle and slowly pulled off the platform.

"Um... Harry, where's your luggage?" The dark-haired wizard showed the girls his reduced in size two sport bags and a school trunk.

"Cool. Your brother did that for you?" Padma asked. Harry shook his head.

"No, he is no wizard, even if he is one of the best toushi ...fighters who have matagama in Tokyo and can do some ...interesting moves... I shrank my things myself." Both girls looked a bit stunned.

"But... That's not so simple spell... Plus, what about being underage?"

"Japan is a bit more relaxed about such things." He made a small pause. "I've read that you need to leave your things here when we arrive to Hogwarts. I think I should return them to normal." Padma nodded, agreeing with him. Harry drew his wand. It was much shorter and a little wider than 'normal'.

"What's your wand." The clever twin asked.

"Sakura tree and shikigami's horn, six and a quarter inches." The green-eyed wizard told them. "My wand is well accustomed to work with either hand to hand or armed fighting or with wandless magic. That's why it's short and thick, so that it is much harder to break."

"Wandless magic? Isn't it possible only for very strong mages?" Padma asked.

"Actually, wand is nothing more than a conductor and amplifier for your magic. You can force it through your body – which usually happens with accidental magic – but you also can make your body itself a conductor. True, magic will be weaker and rather limited, but still... I though that you might have at least heard about such thing, seeing as you are from India or, maybe, Indochina..." Harry and Padma started a discussion of different ways to do magic, while Parvati occupied herself with reading some girly magazine... All things were good, until the door to their compound opened, revealing sneering blond boy accompanied by two goons.

* * *

_**AN**_: Anybody crazy enough to write a full story out of this? if yes, I'd like to place this rules:  
* Harry should be paired (if there is a pairing at all) with either Padma or Su Li (better if with Su - we need more stories with her).  
* Harry is D-rank toushi, meaning he can kick practically anyone's ass at Hogwarts in a 'muggle' way.  
* Harry's knowledge of spells is on the level of the third year (though, he lack in terms of practical applications).  
* Harry should show traits of all houses, but should end in Ravenclaw.  
* 2000 word per chapter at very least.  
* Story must have **solid plot**.


	10. Naruto & Claymore crossover

**Naruto/Claymore crossover :: the meeting with the abyssal one**

* * *

Luciela still wasn't sure what was going on. The last thing she remembered clearly was her younger sister hugging her and ending both of their lives by stopping their yoki flow. Yet, the existence of the abyssal one of the south didn't stop there. Sure, it was just her mind, quickly going insane in the endless black void, but existence nonetheless... And now she had her body, the one after the awakening, even with her favorite dress, and life back. Of course, she was in her human form as it was much better option for finding out what the hell was going on, than the fifty feet tall cat-like form of hers. But so far the former number one had no clues about where she was or why... Luciela was slowly walking through the forest of giant trees – she didn't remember anything like that on the continent – before she finally stumbled upon the road. Shrugging, the abyssal one of the south chose to go right...

Several hours later she came up to the gates of some city, easily the size of Rabona, or even bigger. Infiltrating the settlement was an easy task as both guards were sleeping. Denying herself the desire to feed on them – she was rather hungry awakened being after all – Luciela entered the village and started walking aimlessly around, still trying to understand what was going on and why was she given the second chance. Or was that just a game of her insane mind?..

"Why are you doing this? What have I done to you?" She suddenly heard a child ask through tears of pain. The sound was coming from one of the darker alleys nearby, and for some reason she found herself wanting to investigate.

"You killed my family, demon!" An obviously drunk man said. Demon? Luciela was ...surprised. She didn't sense any yoma or awakened beings around. But right now, being just several meters away from the supposed demon, the abyssal one could feel the slightest amount of yoki being radiated. But this yoki was unlike anything she'd encountered ever before: it was much more potent and held a fiery aura of malevolence within it. And at the same time, the yoki felt to be so wrong within the person who radiated it, like this yoki and just it were forced into the normal human and were contained there. Whoever the boy with that yoki was, he was no demon... Now, despite being a human-eating feline demoness extraordinaire, Luciela was a honorable demoness and never – well, as long as she had a choice – ate children, old people, women and honorable men, sticking to eliminating bandits and other scum. And killing a child was in her mind a crime that warranted death... The drunk raised his makeshift weapon – a long thin pipe – to deal the killing blow to the small blond bloodied child of about eight years old that lied on the ground. "Die demon scum!" But before he could do anything, thick purplish tail hit him, sending him into the wall. Then it wrapped around him and him lifted into the air.

"**May I ask what this child did to warrant such punishment as death?**" The abyssal one asked in a quiet demonic voice. The captured man followed the tail with his eyes, until it disappeared under the long dark-green dress of a girl. The girl, Luciela, looked to be around seventeen with a mid-back long brown hair made into a tail on each side of her head.

"Help! Another demon came to kill us!" The man screamed, but was quickly silenced by girl's tail.

"**Another demon?**" The abyssal one asked. "**As far as I can sense I'm the only demon within three miles in any direction.**" The man simply looked at her in horror. "**I try to be honorable, but attempt of killing an innocent child turns you into a food in my book.**" Still in a quite impassive demonic voice spoke the girl. The man tried to scream something about demons, but that was muffled by Luciela's tail. "**Die!**" And the man screamed. Not from from being crushed by the tail, but from being _eaten_ by the said tail, as multiple mouths appeared on it and started tearing the man apart. Thankfully, the blond boy had already passed out – he didn't need to see his attacker's death... Suddenly, Luciela caught something moving from the corner of her eyes.

"**Katon: goukakyuu!**" A man with silver gravity-defying hair in a dark-gray pants and jacket with light-gray leather vest over it and a mask with dog-like markings on his face said. The fact that a human blew out a fireball stunned the abyssal one for a moment, but then her instincts kicked in and, wrapping her second tail around the unconscious boy, she jumped good two dozens meters up and landed onto the edge of the roof above the alley, while finishing eating the boy's attacker. Moment later the dog-masked man appeared on the rooftop in a swirl of wind and leaves, doing strange signs with his hands. But the gut feeling Luciela had was telling her that he was about to unleash something like that fireball. And her gut feeling was almost never wrong. Suddenly another man appeared next to the first with his hand on masked man's shoulder.

"Inu, stop. I will deal with the situation myself." The second man said in an elderly voice. The man himself was rather short and was wearing white and red robes with a strange hat that bore a hieroglyph on its front. Somehow Luciela knew that the hieroglyph meant fire...

"As you wish, Hokage-sama." The dog-masked man said, doing a step back.

"Can I ask you to release the boy?" The older man asked the abyssal one, who fixed her eyes on him. There was a short pause before the demoness answered. With a question.

"**What are your intentions towards the boy?**" She asked still in her demonic voice. "**If you are gonna attack him, you will have to fight me first.**"

"I'm the boy's, Naruto's, guardian. I will not attack him." Luciela sighed and moved the unconscious boy towards the old man, but was still ready to pull the boy back, in case she was lied to. The man called Hokage gently took the little boy from her tail's grip and inspected him. "Hmm... He has no serious wounds... Should be fine within several hours..." The abyssal one heard the old man muttering under his breath... Maybe that strange yoki could accelerate boy's healing as Luciela was sure no normal human can recover from such trauma in mere hours. "Can we retire to my office to discuss what happened today?" Hokage asked her. The abyssal one nodded slowly. "And, please, stop eating my men." This time the demoness moaned in disappointment as she was still hungry, but she still threw away half-picked skeleton and then hid both of her tail under her dress. The old man, caring Naruto boy in one arm, placed his free hand on her shoulder, and the three of them disappeared form the roof in swirl of wind and leaves created by **shunshin** no jutsu.

* * *

They reappeared moment later in a big office with a table burrowed under mountains of paperwork. The Hokage man gently laid the Naruto boy down of the sofa before suggested to the abyssal one to take a seat, and, after a moment of hesitation, she accepted. The old man himself took his own chair behind the desk.

"Let us introduce to each other first. As we will most likely have a very long talk, it will help us greatly." The demoness nodded. "I'm Sarutobi Hiruzen, otherwise known as the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, this village."

"My name is Luciela and I not remember if I even have the last name. My title is the abyssal one of the south." Hiruzen nodded slowly.

"Now, I have a couple of questions to you, Luciela-san, and I can see that you have several questions of your own." The abyssal one gave a curt nod. "First of all, I take it you are a demon..." Luciela nodded.

"The awakened being would be the right term, but yes."

"Then can you tell me, what are you general intentions towards the people of my village?" The Hokage asked.

"While I'm hungry and wouldn't mind eating someone, I'm honorable enough not to attack the first human I see. I'm sure that this village has men that deserve death. The one I ate when you came attacked the innocent child with the intent to kill – that kind of things turns him into a food in my book." Sarutobi sighed. Maybe he truly was too old for this shit?

"While eating human is a disgusting though for me, it is good that you stick to those who are less than human in their morals... Now, I believe it would be your turn to ask a question." The demoness nodded.

"I will skip the question about where I am as this place doesn't even feel like the world I remember I lived before... So, why was this boy called demon as I can assure you he is quite a human, why there is a faint feeling of yoki coming from him, though, and what is the weak energy reading I get from half of the local population?" The Hokage sighed.

"The answer to the first two questions is an S-rank secret here, meaning you are to be executed if you tell it to anyone, the boy included. But seeing that you are a demon... I feel like you can be told. Though the part about the execution stays... Eight an a half years ago a nine-tailed fox demon, bijuu..." Sarutobi caught the way Luciela looked at him. "The mass of conscious yoki." He explained, making the abyssal one relax a bit. "Attacked the village, causing a lot of destruction and death. My successor, the Yondaime Hokage, fought that demon and defeated it by sealing it into the newborn child, his own son, at the price of his very soul. Naruto has the demon sealed inside him. Yondaime-dono wanted the boy to be seen as a hero, but, alas, grief and anger cloud people's judgment..."

"Sealed?" Luciela asked. "How is that."

"The seal in our case would be a pocket dimension within Naruto's body, connected to it's systems and with a representation in his subconscious. From what reports say, Naruto sees the seal as a giant cage... Anyway, during sealing, bijuu's soul and yoki are ripped from the artificial yoki-made body it has and placed in this pocket dimension. The seal contains the demon within this pocket dimension, though, it allows small amounts of yoki to leak into the boy's systems to increase his chakra capacity and, if needed, accelerate natural healing. It is also possible for Naruto to enter semi-demonic state by forcefully drawing yoki from the bijuu to increase his battle powers, but I hope this will never be used..."

"Chakra, what is that?" Luciela asked.

"In two words it's a human version of yoki. It's less potent, but also more versatile and it can damage human body only in extreme amounts or if changed in certain ways, like the fireball you have seen." The abyssal one was silent for some time.

"This concept of sealing is so different from what was done in the place I came from..." The Hokage raised an eyebrow, silently asking her to elaborate. She understood him. "Well... Once I was a human..." Sarutobi looked at her in surprise, but let her continue. "Then the organization that hunts the demons down took me and my younger sister in... Where is my little Rafaela? Anyway, humans – females – are infused with the flesh of lower demons, yoma, to give them inhuman strength, speed, regeneration, give eternal youth, give yoki, and, most important, give the ability to sense yoma as they are shape shifters. There is certain amount of yoki, after which now half-demon will lose the human side and change into a full demon called the awakened being... Once upon a time males were used to create half-demon warriors too, but they were too easy to awaken for the tastes of the organization... Well, anyway, my sister and I were used in an experiment to create a demon with a human mind. The experiment failed and I couldn't return... And since I was number one, the strongest warrior of the organization at the time, after the awakening I was given the title 'the abyssal one'. But the life of an awakened being is not that bad..." The Hokage nodded.

"That is ...interesting story... My next question would be this: what are you plans for now?" Luciela thought about it.

"I honestly don't know."

"Then I have a proposition." Sarutobi said. At her nod, he explained: "You can work for my village as an ...executor for was criminals and in the meantime you can do missions of eliminating bandits and weaker missing-nins. This would both help the village and... provide you with the food." The abyssal one thought about it for a moment. This will give her almost free food to sustain herself. And, in most cases at least, this food would be someone she would eat anyway.

"I accept with additional point that I will look after the boy. It seems he needs a constant protection." Sarutobi slowly nodded, not really sure if it is wise to let a demon look after the jinchuuriki. "**But if you lied to me, I will rip you apart and eat you in front of your very own eyes.**" The demoness added, making the old man in front of her gulp. "Anyway, why weaker missing-nin? I was in the top five of the demons in my ...world."

"While I do not question your power, do not forget the element of surprise. That fireball and the teleportation weren't even the tip of the iceberg of what a ninja can do with chakra." Luciela nodded. Being cautious against an unknown enemy made sense even for someone who could rip apart and army of spear-men.

"I think, we have a deal then..." The abyssal one made a short pause. "I think, I should change my looks accordingly." The demoness grew a couple of inches, her eyes turned silver, her hair became blond and a bit more spiky. All in all, now she could pass for Naruto's distant relative. "Shape shifting is the ability the awakened ones possess too, but we rarely use it. This is how I looked before turning into the demon." She answered the question that was yet to be asked... Naruto chose this moment to wake up. He looked at the Hokage, then at Luciela...

"You saved me?" He asked the abyssal one, recognizing her despite her changed appearance. She nodded slowly. The next moment the little jinchuuriki launched himself at her, hugging his savior. The demoness was never hugged by anyone other than her sister, but following the instincts she had left from her human female side, she hugged him back. "Thank you, kitty-chan!" The boy exclaimed, shocking Luciela bit: how in the hell did he know that her awakened form was a sixty feet tall demon cat? Or did she just look like a feline even in her human form?

"I guess, our deal is sealed." The Hokage commented.


	11. Harry Potter :: AU year one

**Harry Potter :: AU year one, the beginning  
**

* * *

Despite his intentions of getting rid of his 'freak' nephew at least for the next ten month, Vernon arrived to the King's Cross only fifteen minutes before eleven and, dumping Harry and his things out of the car, sped away. Sighing, the green-eyed wizard picked his things and started looking for the platform 9¾... Not surprisingly, after the platform 9 there was platform 10, and no signs of the one with the number 9¾... Or... Catching some movement out of the corner of his eye, Harry turned around to see a man and a boy of about his age disappear through one of the walls... Already knowing that in the magical world not everything was what it looked to be, the dark-haired boy decided to try his luck and approached that wall. And he was only half-surprised, when ha passed through the – false – wall, appearing on the platform that had a steam engine pulled train next to it. And there also was a sign that read "platform 9¾" and another one just under it with "Hogwarts express – 11:00" on it. Smiling to himself for solving the quest of finding the train, the scion of the great and ancient house of Potter – though Harry didn't know it. Yet. - entered the last car of the train and started looking for a compartment to sit in. It seemed that he had arrived to late to find an empty compartment as only in the forth car he found one that had less than three people in it. This one had only one girl, who was reading some book, in it, and Harry really hoped that she wouldn't mind his company much – he had no desire to continue looking for another place to sit. Harry knocked on the compartment door.

"Um... Sorry... Can I sit here?" He asked quietly. The girl looked up from her book, and studied him for a couple of moments, before nodding. Grateful that she wouldn't mind him in the compartment, the green-eyed boy slipped in and placed his things on the luggage cupboard. Then he sat across from the silent girl and allowed himself to study her appearance. She looked to be twelve or thirteen, but could as well be his contemporary. She had tanned, almost bronze skin, dark-blond with strange green gleam hair and yellow, maybe golden, eyes, and seemed to be from eastern Europe or maybe Ural. Oh, and she had a strange unexplainable feeling of water about her... She wasn't beautiful in a common way, but no one could deny that she was pretty in her own, exotic, way. Then Harry looked down on the book she was reading. And he couldn't understand what was written in it as it was in some foreign language... Of course, him staring at the book didn't go unnoticed.

"See something interesting?" The girl asked, making Harry blush and look away. He heard tapping of nails on the hard book cover then, telling him that the girl was waiting for his answer. Turning back, the dark-haired boy saw her looking at him with a neutral expression on her face. Deciding that he wasn't exactly in trouble yet, he answered:

"Well... Your book isn't in English... And..." Surprisingly for him, the girl nodded.

"Indeed, this book is in Ukrainian..." She made a small pause, before adding: "...Which happens to be my native language." Harry cocked his head a bit.

"So... Your family had immigrated?" Noticing her face darken a bit, he quickly added: "I, personally see nothing wrong with it... Just... It's surprising." The girl nodded, accepting his words.

"My family immigrated about a year ago when Soviet Union started falling apart badly. England seemed to be much more stable and well-suited for me to go to school at." Harry nodded: this was a good reason, even if he knew next to nothing about the situation in the Eastern superpower as the Soviet Union was often called before it started falling apart... "Anyway, I'm Anna Melnik."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Harry..." The green-eyed wizard though for a moment, about will she react to his surname like everyone else, or not, but decided that he should introduce himself properly. "Harry Potter." The girl narrowed her eyes. Well, at least she wasn't gawking at him like he was some kind of a god – that was most annoying...

"You are one of them, pureblood supremacists, aren't you?" Asked Anna with a barely hidden loathing in her voice. Harry merely raised his eyebrow, not completely understanding, what she was about. "Potters are an ancient family of purebloods. You hate those who aren't as pure as you are, like other pureblood families do, don't you? If so, leave." Well, at least, this explained what the whole thing was about...

"Considering that my mother was... a first generation witch... And the only so-called pureblood I'm sure about is a stuck-up bastard... Of course, not everyone is better, but still, I have no problem with your 'blood status', if that is what you are asking." Anna blushed and seemed to shrink into her seat at his answer.

"Sorry... I must have known better than using labels on anyone... Sorry..." She sniffed. Almost instinctively, Harry reached for her, placing his hand on her book that was lying on her knees.

"It's OK... I'm not angry with you..." But he didn't want to lie, and she had offended him somewhat... "Well, not much." She looked up at him. "Let's forget the whole thing." The girl nodded.

* * *

About an hour later, the comfortable – for Harry at least – silence of the compartment was destroyed when a certain pureblood supremacists in the boy of an eleven years old blond boy, accompanied by two human-like gorillas – or were those gorilla-like humans? – opened the door.

"And here's the famous Harry Potter." The blond boy Harry had net at Madam Malkin's said in an i-am-better-than-everyone tone. "I thought about giving you a chance of becoming my friend, but seeing who are you sitting with... You are the lost cause, a complete disgrace of a wizard." Anna glared at the boy, somehow managing to continue reading at the same time. Harry was was just glaring.

"You know what..." The green-eyed wizard said finally. "Get lost. I liked this compartment much much more before you decided to grace us with you presence." The blond boy's cheeks turned slightly pink from anger.

"If I were you, I'd more careful when talking to your betters, or you will end just like you worthless parents. And before you turn seventeen." And before Harry could send something nasty – at least the nastiest curse he could find in his first and second year level textbook – at the boy, the blond and the duo of his gorillas had already left the compartment.

"Thank you for defending me." Anna said, as she looked at her 'savior'. "Though, you shouldn't have angered a Malfoy. They are both wealthy and politically powerful." Harry just nodded absentmindedly, not really caring about the threat Malfoys could be right now. The duo again was surrounded by the comfortable silence again...

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, though, they got another group of visitors, much more pleasant, though. They were a chubby boy and a girl with brown a bit curly hair. The duo was just searching for boy's toad. Anna, barely looking away from her book, suggested that they ask someone to summon it, and the duo left to look for an upper-year student to do just that. Harry and Anna were granted only ten minutes of calmness after that, before a red-haired boy rudely entered their compartment. The boy just plopped on the seat next to Harry, paying to attention to the girl in the compartment.

"You are Harry Potter, right?" The boy asked. Surprised by his bluntness, the green-eyed wizard just nodded. "Can I see it? Where _he_ stroke you, you know. Is it really shaped like a lightning?" The boy said animatedly, while leaning closer to Harry, trying to see the famous scar. "I'm Ron, Ron Weasely, by the way. But we're friends, mate, so you can call me just Ron..." Feeling that the redhead was invading his personal space too much, Harry pushed him away a bit.

"No, you can't see it. I will not answer that. And..." The dark-haired boy retorted, in more annoyed that angry voice.

"But, mate..." Ron said completely surprised by his unfriendliness.

"I'm not your mate and I'm not your friend, mr. Weasely." Harry hissed, even more annoyed by the redhead. "So if there is nothing else you want here, please, leave." He then said forcefully. Ron made a hurt expression on his face and, muttering something about the dark side and ungrateful men, exited the compartment... Thankfully, Harry and Anna weren't disturbed by anyone for the rest of train ride.

* * *

Finally, professor McGonagall led the group of the yet to be sorted first years – Anna was among them too – into the Great hall of the Hogwarts, where, right in front of professors' table, on the wooden stool sat an ancient hat. The said hat than sang a song about four houses of the school and some other things, but Harry didn't really listen to it. After the applause to the singing hat died down, the sorting started, with Abbot Hannah going to the Hufflepuff house... One by one students were sorted...

"Melnik, Anna." Professor McGonagall read from the scroll in her hands and the girl calmly, or as calmly as one can be during such a life-changing moment, walked to the stool. Then the hat was placed on her head... And there was silence, though it seemed that everyone could hear proverbial cog wheels turning inside the hat. Malfoy was about to let out a remark about Anna being not good enough for Hogwarts, but both McGonagall's stern look and the coughing from the hat made him hold his tongue.

"Very interesting little one you are..." The ancient hat said quietly. "And you'd fit the best in the Helga's house." Then it shouted. "Hufflepuff!" This time Malfoy didn't bother to hold a snide remark back, but, thankfully, he was clever enough to say it quietly, so McGonagall and other professors could only send a glare to the laughing Slytherins... The sorting continued smoothly, until Harry's name was called. The green-eyed boy walked to the stool, trying to pay no attention to those whispers and students gawking at him.

'_What do we have here... Mr. Harry James Potter..._' The hat said in Harry's hat as soon as it touched it. '_Let's see, where should I place you... You have a bravery in you, but you know better than to rush head first without thinking... And you will do that only for those who deserve your bravery... No, Godric's house would suit you, of course, but it isn't the best choice... You are loyal, mr. Potter, but, again, only to those, who, you think, deserve it, and so far no one is on this list, though two are rather close... This means, Helga's house is out... You like knowledge..._' This was true, as Harry spent a lot of time in libraries, hiding from his cousin and his gang. At first he just sat there, then he started reading one book after another, learning a lot of things from them, things that helped greatly in his life. '_But you like it not for itself, but for what power over your life, and the world around you, it gives. Both Rowena and Salazar would have like to have you in their houses..._'

'_Please, not Slytherin._' Harry pleaded in his mind, mostly because he didn't want to spend next seven years with Malfoy and his pet gorillas. The hat sensed this.

'_ I see... While Slytherin would have made you great, the current environment would not be beneficial for your learning... It is decided then. You better be..._' Then the hat shouted: "Ravenclaw!"

**~/ *** \~**

The Ravenclaw tower was very good, though a bit too much of a library for living quarters for Harry's tastes. The had small personal rooms for each student there, separated into two blocks: one for boys and one for girls. Oh, what wonderful beds were in these rooms... Harry had never slept as good as during this night before.

After the classes for the first day – Transfiguration with McGonagall, History of magic with Binns and double DADA with Quirrell – were finished, Harry went straight to the library, hoping to get a clue about that weird feeling of water he had around Anna. Or the feeling of darkness and dread he got from Quirrell...

* * *

After a good half an hour of looking through the book catalog, the green-eyed wizard finally found something that seemed worth looking through: "Magical abilities and bloodlines". The said book happened to be a big and rather dusty tome that was easily trice as old as the current headmaster of the school was. It took the boy quite some time to find what looked similar to his 'ability':

'_Magic sense. Rather rare ability which can appear spontaneously in any magic user, though females get it more often. Magic sense allows user, with some training, to get a rough estimation of magical power of someone close to them, sensing powerful wards and spells. This ability also allows picking elementals out. There is a similar, but more powerful ability called Magic sight, which is also a bloodline of the..._'

Guessing that the feeling of water he got around his female friend might be because she was an elemental, Harry continued looking through the tome, till he found some information about elementals:

'_Elemental powers. These are rare, generally hereditary, powers to control certain element in an wandless way. Usually, elemental powers come from magical sentient creatures, though, the cases of an elemental child with human non-elemental parents were registered..._' Harry skipped the text to the list of the creatures who could give elemental powers to their offsprings. '_Fire elementals usually have one of these - or more than one - as their ancestors: drakes, succubi, ifrits,.._' The list went on. Deciding to look into those later, Harry skipped fire, earth, wind, lightning elementals and those who had powers that came from the combinations of the aforementioned elements, going straight to the water elementals. '_Water elementals generally have either mermen, naiads, nereids or other aquatic or amphibious demi-humans in their ancestry..._' Read the dark-haired boy. Looking at his watch, he noticed that it was already six in the evening and the library would be closing in an hour. Hopefully, he could do some small research about possible ancestor of Anna...

'_I don't have much time..._' The boy thought as he was looking for the book on magical creatures. '_Which specie should I be looking for?.. It must be aquatic or amphibious. It also must live in Ukraine, since Anya's from there..._' Opening the book, which was much never than the tome about the magical abilities, he looked through the list of the creatures ...explained in it. '_Hmm... Slav rivermaid and Vodyanoj look like the most possible ones..._' Harry went to the page about the rivermaids and started reading.

'_Slav rivermaids, depending on the country, they are seen as neutral to danger level two dark creature. Rivermaids inhabit lakes, backwaters, pools and rivers with slow flow in Ukraine, Belorussia and south-west Russia. Sometimes they can be found near water mills too, though, generally, they stay well away from human settlements. Slav rivermaids are almost complete lookalikes of the human females, having only their golden eyes and dark, mossy-green hair for distinguishing features. They are also physically stronger than humans are and are capable of water-based magic. Also, rivermaids are usually non-hostile towards humans, as long as they or something they hold dear isn't endangered or they have their territory trespassed._

_Slav rivermaids are, actually, the same specie with vodyanoj, but they mate more often with human males (whom they lure into their territory, or just abduct. Again, sometimes they come to live in the human settlement with mates) than with males of their own specie._

_Rivermaids rarely socialize with their own kind, despite their specie having their own language. They are capable of speaking and learning multiple human languages too. There are almost intelligent as humans are, and they make up with their hardworking for the difference..._' As Harry continued reading, he understood that Anna must have had a rivermaid as one of her ancestors, and got her water elemental's powers from there...

**~/ *** \~**

Next morning, just as the lunch break started, Harry approached Anna, as the rest of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were heading from the Charms to the Great hall.

"A-Anya..." The green-eyed boy said more than a little nervously. The golden-eyed girl looked at him, and, feeling his nervousness, immediately began suspecting something.

"Yes, ...Harry?"

"Can we find some place more private?" Anna nodded, still not really understanding, what he wanted... Less than five minutes later, the two of them were hidden away form the general public of the Hogwarts in one of the less-used corridors.

"So... What did you want?" The girl asked a bit bluntly.

"Well... I did some research yesterday and... ?" Harry said really quickly. Anna didn't understand him, though.

"Sorry, what?" Harry took a deep breath to calm down, before repeating his question.

"Are y-you really a d-descendant of a Slav rivermaid?" He asked again. The blond girl narrowed her eyes at him, dangerously so. "I don't have any problems with that. It's quite cool, actually!" The dark-haired boy added quickly, hoping to avoid her possible wrath. Too stunned by how quickly he figured her out, Anna just nodded, before asking him:

"How?" Harry looked into her golden eyes warily.

"You gave all the clues." Taking her silence as a request to elaborate, he continued: "Well... You are a water elemental... You have golden eyes and streaks of green in your hair... And you are from Ukraine. Elementals generally have some magical creature as one of their ancestors, and you birth country, your eyes and hair determine that 'creature' to be no one other than Slav rivermaid." He explained. Anya sighed and nodded.

"Yes, you are right. My mother is the one." She admitted. "But what will you do with this knowledge?" She asked then.

"Nothing." Harry said, reassuring her. "You are my first friend. Why would I want to hurt you?" Anna nodded. "OK. Let's join the rest of our houses at the lunch now, shall we?" And the two of them hurried down to the Great hall...

* * *

On their way down, they ran into the mass of Griffindors and Slytherins who were, it looked like, just let free from Transfiguration. And, of course, Malfoy was going to torment the duo once he had spotted them.

"Well, well, well... What do we have here? Potter!" The blond boy sneered. "Oh, sorry, I didn't see that you were with... that girl. And here I wanted to give you a chance of redeeming your face of a wizard. Now I'm completely sure that you are worthless freak if you keep associating with this dirty blooded hussy." Anna had controlled anger on her face while the Harry had it written on his face that he wanted nothing more than to punch Malfoy's face right now, but he held himself back – he didn't need any more problems now. Plus the audience around them...

"You know, Malfoy, I see that you have no brain whatsoever. Who in their right mind would insult their superior." Draco laughed.

"She? My superior? You must be hallucinating, Potter. No thing like her can be superior to a pureblooded wizard like me."

"Yet, she's the strongest in our year." Harry stated coldly, while trying to glare a hoe through his 'opponent's' head. Malfoy sneered again.

"Thank you, Potter. I really needed a good laugh before lunch." And he started walking away, while the rest of the student body – minus Harry and Anna – started laughing. Before they understood that they, Gryffindors and Slytherins, were laughing together... Two groups glared at each other, before walking towards the Great hall, making sure to take different routes. When Harry and Anna were finally alone on the stairs, the golden-eyed girl asked.

"Y-You said that I'm the strongest. Why?" Harry shrugged.

"You are a water elemental." Anna looked at him, not really understanding, how it made her 'the strongest'.

"Yes, but there is no water around." The dark-haired wizard looked into her eyes.

"There is. Human boy has at least sixty six percents of water in it. And there is also water vapors in the air." At this point, Anna's eyes opened wide as she realized the true extent of her powers... "So, let's go eat. Lunch break won't last forever."

"Thank you, Harry." Still a little stunned girl said, before the two of them resumed on their way to the Great hall; Anna trying to be close to her friend...


	12. F & F & F plot bunnies

This "chapter" actually contains three plot bunnies. it just didn't feel right to post smaller ones in separate chapters.

Plot bunny one: "Naruto" / "Claymore" crossover, human-Clare/Naruto. **Fluff**  
Plot bunny two: "Harry Potter", Thanatos & Harry. **Flirt**  
Plot bunny three: "Harry Potter", yet another the wrong boy who lived story. **Foolishness**

Enjoy!

* * *

**Naruto/Claymore crossover :: "Crimson blades" :: teaser 2  
**_sorry, but this idea belongs to me and can't be used without my expressed permission. the other two, however, are not, so you can use them freely as long as you give me a credit for using them._

"Clare-chan, come on, I want to show you something." Said Naruto, practically dragging the older girl towards the edge of the apple tree garden... The evening was rather warm for a winter and the heavy cloud that settled above them was powdering them with large fluffy snowflakes that lazily descended to the ground... The Kyuubi jinchuuriki and his companion finally reached the place the blond boy wanted. And Clare stared at the picture in front of her, mesmerized by how beautiful the sunset looked.

"This... This is so beautiful, Naruto-kun!" She said awe. Naruto nodded, not daring to break the silence... And even the Kyuubi in its seal was silent for once in a long time, not annoying its container with demands of being released... The beast probably was mesmerized by the sunset too... The sun had almost completely disappeared behind the horizon when Clare looked at the blond with a look in her eyes that the boy didn't really understand. "Mmm... Naruto-kun?.." She cooed, attracting his attention. "What do you think of me?"

"Um... I like you... You're like a sister to me..." He was interrupted as Clare's arm snaked around his shoulders.

"Too bad..." The girl said pouting, but with a little giggle at the end. "I'll have be a kinky sister then as I... as I love you, Naruto-kun..." And she pulled him closer to herself, placing her lips over his in a longing kiss.

* * *

Not far from them, two ex-warriors were standing under one of the trees, watching them.

"Shouldn't we stop them?" Irene asked as she saw Clare kissing Naruto.

"Why should we?" Replied Teresa. "They are but a children, they need all the love they can give each other. Let them be." Former number three shrugged: maybe Teresa was right. "And..." Curly-haired ex-warrior continued. "We need love too, don't we?"

"Wha-?.." Irene, caught off guard, started, but Teresa tackled her into the snow and silenced with a kiss.

* * *

* * *

**Harry Potter :: CoS addition**

The headmaster just left the hospital wing, leaving Harry sitting on his bed in the relative darkness. Despite the events in the Chamber of Secrets, the dark-haired boy didn't really want to go to sleep right now. Suddenly his eyes caught come movement by the window. Turning his head there, Harry was greeted with the sight of the strangest girl he had ever seen. She was looking to be in her late teens, and was quite tall. She was wearing knee-high metal style boots, fishnet stockings and a black sleeveless evening dress that was hugging her curves nicely and had a cut on its left side that went up to her hip. On her right arm there was a sleeve that was completely separate from her dress – it was black too, of course. Her left arm, clad in a black glove that went almost all the way up to her shoulder, where it was held with two belts, had a strange amulet on the silver chain in it. The girl held a scythe in her right hand. The weapon was rather simple in design, bar another silver chain starting from the end of the handle and wrapping several times around her right arm. The blade of the scythe, though, was surrounded by a green, the _**avada kedavra**_ green, glow... Harry moved his eyes up to the girl's face. She had a pretty, even if a bit angular, face, unruly black hair that went all the way down to her knees, with a silver hairpiece in them on the top of her head. And her eyes... They were of the same green color as the glow around her scythe. And they were glowing a bit too...

"So... This is the man, who escaped me twice..." She said, when Harry was finally looking at her face. "You peaked my interest. And you aren't even thirteen yet..." The green-eyed wizard was still looking at her, trying to figure out who she was. Finally he gave up and, with a sigh, just asked.

"Um... Sorry, but who are you?" The teenage girl actually smiled and banished her scythe away, having it disappear in the flash of green.

"Me? I'm just lil' old Death. Though, you can call me Thanatos, or just Thana." Harry stared at the avatar of death as she casually approached him.

"Wha? Death? Sorry, I'm not..." This only made her snicker.

"Now, now... Why would I take you? It's no fun... You know, being all business for eternity is so-o boring... I'd rather watch you trying to survive against what Fates are throwing at you." As she was finishing her 'speech', Thana placed her finger against relieved boy's chest and pushed him down onto the bed. She then sat onto the chair next to his bed, casually placing her left leg over the right one. "Hmm..." The Death hummed, getting even more attention from the green-haired boy than she already had. "It was so long since the Peverell brothers... I need some entertainment... How about a deal?"

"What deal?" Harry asked without thinking first. Thanatos chuckled.

"Quite an interesting one, I'd say... You escape me once more before your true time comes, and I'll let you master me, OK? You know, Death can be pleasing too." The seductive voice she was using, along with the fact that he could see _everything_ she wore, made Harry's appearing hormones go on rampage, making him blush crimson as he understood – he wasn't as thick about the opposite gender as many thought – what Thana was implying. She laughed a bit at his reaction, and the dark-haired wizard found the sound to be melodic and beautiful, and not what he expected... Suddenly they both heard madam Pomfrey preparing to check on her patients. "Well, mr. handsome..." Thana's words made Harry blush even more. "Looks like our private meeting is coming to an end. Do keep quite about it and live an interesting life for my entertainment. Bye bye." And after waving her hand to him, the Death disappeared in a green mist, that dissipated right before the medi-witch entered the room.

"Mr. Potter, I know how much you want to get out of here, and I assure you that staying awake the whole night will only keep you here longer. Should I give you a dreamless sleep potion?" She asked Harry, who was staring into the space Thanatos had occupied moments before...

* * *

* * *

**Harry Potter :: Yet another The Wrong Boy Who Lived story :: the beginning**

"Lily, take them and run!" James Potter shouted over the whizzing sounds of spells he traded with Voldemort, desperately trying to buy time. The red-haired woman nodded and raced upstairs. The Dark Lord sent three killing curses after her, but all of them missed the target. Sighing lightly, Voldemort gave his full attention to James, who was trying his best to take his opponent down.

"I seem that you won't let me go after the mudblood of your wife..." James glared at Voldemort, sending two borderline dark cutting curses at the Dark Lord. "You know, any other time, I'd be glad to kill you, muggle-loving fool, but right now I have more pressing business." Before the Potter could erect a shield, he was hit with **stupefy**, _**petrificus totalus**_ and _**incancerous**_ curses. "For now I will let you wail in despair of not being able to save you children." Voldemort hissed, while hitting the man on the top of his head with the tip of his wand, disillusioning him. That done, the Dark Lord moved upstairs, where Lily just entered the nursery – damn, how had this mudblood escaped him trice if she was this slow? The woman turned around sharply and sent a string of curses towards the approaching enemy, but Voldemort's shield was there to deflect them.

"Spare my children! Please, kill me, but spare them!" Lily begged, seeing that she alone stood no chance against the Dark Lord. The man sneered.

"As you wish, I will kill you, mudblood wrench. Be sure to expect you spawns to join you in the afterlife soon. _**Avada kedavra**_!" Lily tried to dodge the green spell, but it hit her on her shoulder, killing her instantly. Now, as he had a couple of minutes before the rest of the order of the fried bird would arrive, Voldemort calmly walked into the nursery and looked at two twins who were lying there in their beds. "Now... Which one should I kill first?" The Dark Lord asked himself, before simply pulling a galeon out of his robes and tossing it into the air... "Heads... I kill the right one first." Voldemort pointed his wand at the boy's – Harry's – head. "_**Avada kedavra**_!"

The killing curse sped towards the boy and the moment it connected with his forehead, something completely unexpected happened: it was absorbed, leaving green lightnings cracking around the spot. Then a moment later, the curse reformed and flew towards Voldemort, hitting the shocked man straight on his chest. There was an ear-piecing scream and the body of the Dark Lord turned into a black smoke, while a lightning-shaped scar appeared on Harry's forehead. A fainter version appeared on Edward's forehead too, thanks to the bond between twins... At the same moment a wave of magical energy exploded from the Harry's body, making every glass and china object in the room explode, raining sharp splinters everywhere... And as Harry was closer to the exploding objects than his twin, he became the meat shield. Several splinters hit Harry on his forehead, leaving bleeding cuts through the scar...

A wave of magical energy passed through the entire house, breaking the spells Voldemort put James under. The man shakily stood up and immediately ran upstairs. Seeing the dead body of his wife lying next to the nursery door, James swallowed nervously and entered the room. Much to his surprise, he found his twin crying in their beds and empty robes of Voldemort on the floor. James cautiously approached the boys, afraid that they were some kind of a trap, but his instincts of a father were telling him that these two were indeed his sons, even if something about Harry didn't feel right...

Quickly taking some blood from both boys onto the parchment, James did complicated wand motions for the simplified version of the lineage ritual used by goblins. The results were ...surprising.

Edward Charles Potter  
age: 457 days  
parents: Lily Mary Evans and James Richard Potter

Harry ? ?  
age: 457 days  
parents: Lily Mary Evans and ?

Well, at least both were real, even if the magic no longer recognized Harry as his son. Even the twins' bond was severed!.. Sighing in relief from having his children alive, James quickly cast basic healing spell on Harry to stop the bleeding and, not even bothering to remove the blood from his forehead, went to examine the scar on Edwards forehead. Finding faint traces of the dark magic there, James immediately, in his mind, proclaimed the boy to be the one who vanquished the Dark Lord Voldemort.

"James... What on Earth happened here?" Asked Dumbledore as he walked into the room. The widower looked up at the so-called Light Lord.

"Voldemort happened." he said with a sigh. "He stunned me, killed my Lily and then tried to kill Edward, but something happened and Voldemort died himself instead..." Albus looked surprised for a moment, but then regained his composure.

"Well... I seems that Edward is the child of the prophesy. The Boy Who Lived... Still, what you going to do with Harry, James?" The younger man sighed again.

"I'm afraid, I'll have to give him away: the backlash from Edward killing Voldemort removed Harry from the Potter family. Magic no longer recognized him as my son even, though it still sees Lily as his mother... Plus even if I keeps him – and able to raise them both – what would happen? Harry will always be overshadowed by Edward, and this may cause him to turn dark. Do we need another Dark Lord in this century, Albus? It will be better if Harry never knew about me and Edward." Dumbledore slowly nodded.

"It seems that this will be the best course of action. After all, we must strive for the Greater Good, even if we have to do such awful sacrifices..." The aged headmaster made a pause. "Whom will you give Harry to, James? I'm sure, Alice and Frank would love to adopt him."

"Maybe... But Harry still has blood relatives in the from of Lily's sister – what was her name? They might be muggles, but they are his family. I will give Harry to them." And so was decided the fate of the little Harry...

**~/ *** \~**

Loud shriek woke up nearly the whole Surrey when Petunia Dursley found a basket with a 15 months old child sitting right in front of the door of her and Vernon's house. What surprised her even more, the said child had his forehead heavily scarred with horizontal marks, though a faint lightning bolt shaped scar could be seen behind them. Trying to find any clues about who this child was, Petunia searched the basket. And, indeed, there was a letter. As she read it, she found out that the boy was, actually, her, now dead, sister's son, whom _the freaks_ could no longer care for. The woman was in the kitchen, thinking about what should she do with her nephew, when Vernon came into the room. His eyes immediately fell onto the child that wasn't his son Dudley.

"Who the hell is it, Pet, dear?" The walrus-like man asked.

"This boy happens to be my dead sister's son." Petunia answered.

"You freak sister's son?" Vernon asked and when his wife nodded, he continued. "I say we just get rid of him. He must be _the freak_ too. What if... What if..." He couldn't finish as Petunia interrupted him.

"I don't think that's the best idea. I say, we keep him and raise as our own. After all he is a freak to _the freaks_?"

"Then he is twice the freak and we definitely should put him out of the misery." Vernon almost shouted, turning crimson in his face.

"No." The woman in front of him said, catching him by surprise with her determination.

"Why?"

"The enemy of our enemy is our friend, isn't it?" For a couple of seconds Vernon was thinking, before quite a sinister smile appeared on his face.

"Indeed it is. But I will not have the boy have our last name." He said finally. Petunia, it seemed, had already thought about this.

"My parents had passed a couple of years ago. I don't think that they will mind if we give the boy their last name. After all,_ the freak_ of my sister was of their blood too." Vernon nodded and Petunia turned to little Harry. "From this day onwards you will be Harry Leliel Evans."


	13. Harry Potter :: CoS alternation 2

Hello, everyone, my crazy plot bunnies decided to return, so, here's one of them...

Anyway, had anyone wondered, why, if the basilisk venom can destroy horcruxes, the one in Harry survived through the Chamber of Secrets? Well, here it won't. So you absolutely have to read what would happen in this case.

And, if anyone will find this idea inspiring, you are free to use it in you own stories for as long as you give me a credit for this idea.

**"vicarius meus: oculus"** is latin for "replace mine: eye" if anyone wants to know...

* * *

* * *

**Harry Potter :: CoS alternation 2 :: The basilisk eye**

"Oh no, I can't allow you do this." Tom Riddle, or as he preferred to call himself, Lord Voldemort, hissed to the phoenix who was trying to claw basilisk's eyes. "_**Bombarda**_**!**" Thankfully for the Dark Lord, the bird wasn't too much magic resistant, and the spell threw the fire chicken into the wall , making it switch to self-defense, instead of trying to cripple the basilisk...

* * *

Meanwhile one Harry James Potter was trying to find a way to kill the forty meters long king of serpents with just an old hat and a sword. Not an easy task at all... While his Griffindor side was busy trying to outrun the giant basilisk in the labyrinth of pipes that surrounded the Chamber of Secrets, the Slytherin side was analyzing the situation... And it came up with a solution: the snake's mouth was big enough for him to fit between its giant poisonous fangs – he saw it in the reflection on water – so the only way to slay the snake to stand still with the sword raised and pray that it won't bite him while getting a sword through the roof of its mouth. Really, what a Griffindor solution of a problem... Still, it was the only one he came up with, and with no other options, Harry did just that.

Unfortunately, it seemed, his luck has run out as he felt basilisk's fang tear his right cheek just as he felt the weight of the serpent on the tip of his sword. Instantly, Harry felt a white-hot pain shoot through his cheek and what was left from his destroyed eye. The Green-eyed wizard knew that he would die in a minute or two because of the venom, and he already could feel its effects as his world was turning black and silent... The last thing he saw was a sickly-green mist appearing around his head, accompanied by an earsplitting cry of... something... Then Harry could only feel the wet cold stone under his back and the pain on his face... Soon, those were gone too...

'_I... I'm sorry... I couldn't... stop it..._' Was Harry's last thought. ...He didn't know how long he spent in the emptiness that was between this life and the next one, but soon the feeling started returning to him. He was still lying on the stones of the pipe somewhere next to the trice damned chamber, but now he had a phoenix sitting on his chest with a tears still in his eyes. '_Of course... Phoenix tears can heal almost anything..._' Harry thought, remembering facts about Dumbledore's familiar, that was now flying in circles above his head. '_Unfortunately, they couldn't restore my eye..._' The dark-haired wizard stood up on shaking legs... And he noticed something: his head was now full of memories that weren't his. Deciding that he could deal with this after he destroyed the damned Tom, he picked up the sword of Griffindor – he now knew what it was – and started walking towards the main 'Chamber of Secrets'...

* * *

'Young' Voldemort was waiting impatiently for the basilisk to return, but instead he saw his nemesis, Harry Potter, enter the chamber with the sword in his hands and the phoenix on his shoulder. But Harry's right eye was missing and the boy had a thin vertical scar going from his eyebrow and down to his lower jaw...

"Well, it seems that they are right: if you want something done right, do it yourself." Tom hissed, sending green curse towards Harry, who, on pure instincts, jumped to the side, avoiding it. "Stand still, Potter, so that I can kill you." Said the Dark Lord, sending another killing curse at his opponent, but it was again dodged.

"Sorry, can't do that." Harry shouted back, charging towards Voldemort, but was forced to jump aside moment later, or he would have being killed by another **avada kedavra** curse. Suddenly dark-haired boy's eyes fell on the black diary lying on the floor: Voldemort appeared from it, so, he though, if he destroyed it, there was a good chance that Tom would disappear too. So acting on this though, Harry ran towards the diary, shocking the Dark Lord with this turn of events, and stabbed it. At the same time golden wound appeared on Voldemort's stomach.

"Why you..." The Dark Lord could say nothing more, as he disintegrated into green smoke with the same earsplitting scream Harry had heard before, when the basilisk bit him. The same green smoke was also seeping from the diary, while dark-red inks flowed from between its pages like blood... Several seconds later Voldemort was no more. The green-eyed wizard turned towards the red-haired girl that was lying on the stone floor of the chamber and saw that the color was returning to her skin – Ginny Weasley would live... Knowing that he couldn't leave the chamber while she was unconscious, Harry decided to go through the memories he got from whatever was in his head before... But before that he tore a stripe of cloth from his robes and tied it across his face to hide his now empty right eye socket...

* * *

By the end of an hour Ginny was still unconscious, while Harry had more or less looked through _the memories_. And those were memories of Voldemort himself. Everything from Tom's first memory and up to the events of that Halloween night of 1981. Harry could now recall every spell, every bit of magic Voldemort ever learned. And good third of those were spell, potions and ritual Harry would be thankful not to remember ever again... He even learned how Voldemort had escaped death: he learned about horcruxes, what are they, how to make them, where Voldemort's were and how to get to them through their defenses... On the other hand, Harry learned some dark medical spells, one of which could com in handy with his current eye problem: there was a medical surgery spell that allowed replacing one body part with another similar to it. An eye for an eye... Hoping that Ginny wouldn't wake up while he was gone, Harry left the chamber and went to where the dead basilisk was lying...

'_Well... I can't replace my eye now... It will raise to many question when they get me to the hospital wing..._' The green-eyed wizard thought as he cut basilisk's right eye out of the serpent's body. '_But I can transplant it as soon as I'm out of that prison. The Room of Requirement should provide me the perfect environment for that..._' So, all that he needed to do was to preserve the eye until he could transplant it... One he had the eye, Harry conjured with little difficulty a glass jar with a solution. He then shrank the snakes eye to the size of his own, and cast a very neat piece of magic onto it, making its current state be counted as 'normal', so that _**finite incantem **_or something like that would not destroy his hard work. Then Harry made the jar unbreakable and put the eye into it. Finally, he cast a stasis charm onto the jar and shrank it to put it into his pocket... Done with the basilisk for now, Harry went back to the chamber, finding that Ginny was still unconscious...

* * *

The redhead woke only two more hours later, when Harry was already dozing off. After telling Ginny that he was alright and that the basilisk and the diary were killed, he lead her out of the chamber, with Fawkes the phoenix flight just above their heads... By the time they got there, Ron managed to clear a pass for them through the fallen rocks. Harry and Ginny learned what happened to the fraud that was their DADA teacher. From there Fawkes carried them up the pipes to the girls' toilet on the second floor, where Dumbledore, other teachers and Arthur and Molly Weasley were waiting for them... After Harry retold the events of the Chamber, bar him gaining Voldemort's memories and harvesting basilisk's eye to transplant in place of his lost right one, he was sent to the tender mercies of madam Pomfrey at the hospital wing...

* * *

Four days later, just before the term was over, Harry was released from the hospital wing and immediately ran to the seventh floor.

"I need a place to perform a magical surgery... I need a place to perform a magical surgery... I need a place to perform a magical surgery..." He muttered under his breath as he walked three times past seemingly empty wall. But when Harry finished the ritual, the door appeared on the wall. He quickly entered the Room of Requirement and sealed the door from the inside – he really didn't want someone to interrupt him with what he was going to do...

The room, as expected, was just what he needed. Taking the jar out of his pocket, Harry returned it to the original size and removed the stasis charm form it. He took the basilisk's eye out of the jar and placed it on the silver pedestal that the room provided for it. Then Harry removed his eye patch.

'_There goes nothing..._' Harry thought. "_**Vicarius meus: oculus**_**!**" White glow surrounded both him and the basilisk's eye, there he felt pain and knew no more...

* * *

When Harry woke up, his right eye felt sore... It felt! It was there! The surgery was successful! Not wasting any more time, the green-eyed wizard ran towards the nearest surface that could be used as a mirror. In the reflection he saw himself, his left eye was still bright-green and human. His right one was now yellow and slitted, a snake's eye... The next moment Harry felt a strong pain erupt through his head and he instinctively looked away. The pain was gone... It seemed that even after the transplantation, the basilisk's eye retained its magical properties, even if on a smaller scale. Most likely, it could petrify someone who looked straight into it... But it was not much a problem as Harry decided that he would still wear the patch – he didn't want to be more of a _freak_ than he already was... Casting a quick tempus spell, Harry learned that there still were five hours before the Hogwarts express will leave for London, so, replacing the eye patch, he ran out of the Room of Requirement to pack his things and get ready for a summer with his loving relatives...

* * *

Well, love it, hate it, leave me a **review **in any case!


	14. Harry Potter & Black cat crossover

Another plot bunny from my burrow. This time it's "_**Harry Potter**_" and "**_Black cat_**" crossover (I own neither of those two, by the way) in which Sephiria Arcs adopts our little Harry and names him Johann. This plot bunny can be expanded into a real story one day, but for now...

* * *

**Harry Potter/Black cat crossover :: Arcs**

Twenty minutes before eleven, on September first, a rather unusual pair of people entered the platform 9¾. One of the two was a rather tall and athletic, for his eleven years of age, boy with a bit messy raven hair that were made into a loose ponytail that stopped between his shoulder blades. The boy had very deep green eyes and two small parallel scars on the left side of his chin, as well as a thin, barely visible even when not covered by his hair, lightning-shaped one on his forehead. The young wizard was dressed into dark-blue sweater and black jeans and wore black GI-style boots. That, along with his wand holster, that was made to look like a sheathe for a dagger, attached to his right hip, made the boy look ...well, cool.

Accompanying him, there was a young lady, twenty five or so years old, with mid-back long wavy dirty-blond hair and blue eyes. She wore dark-blue, almost black cloak with a deep-blue button-up shirt underneath it, pants of the same color and black combat boots. In her left hand was her beloved Ichthus, sheathed and wrapped in a thick light-gray cloth. This lady was Sephira – or as she liked to be called, Sephiria – Arcs, one of the best female sword masters of this century... And a beautiful woman to boot. So, the moment the duo entered the platform, many males had their eyes on her. But Sephiria ignored them, her whole attention on the young wizard next to her...

"Han'y, write me about Hogwarts, OK? Be a good student and get good marks. And stay out of trouble! And do keep up with your exercises. I will know if you don't..." Johann Arcs groaned a little at the pet name his adoptive mother called him – they were in public! - but nodded to everything she said.

"Of course, I will." The dark-haired wizard replied with a small grin.

"Come home for Christmas, Han'y. I'll miss you." Sephiria said, before kissing him on his forehead, for a second too long for it to be purely mother's kiss, though. Johann wrapped his hands around his mother in a hug. She put her free hand on his back in return, bringing him closer to her. Several seconds later, she released him. "Go find yourself a place to seat, Han'y. You can come back after that." The dark-haired boy nodded and, without any problems took both of his bags from the trolley, even if both were rather heavy – his physical strength was a nice side-effect of his swordsmanship training under his (adoptive) mother.

Finding an empty compartment to sit, even at this time, wasn't that hard, so Johann found himself a place to seat just a car away from where Sephiria was standing. Quickly claiming his place in the compartment, the green-eyed wizard returned to his mother's side for a long goodbye...

**~/ *** \~**

Eventually, the cloak stroke eleven, and the train departed, taking young Johann Arcs to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. The young wizard was still not completely back to Earth after bidding farewell to his mother in as warm and personal way as was socially acceptable between mother and son (or) in public – despite her tough appearance, deep down Sephiria was quite a cuddler and 'Han'y' often played the role of her 'teddy bear'...

While he was at the platform someone decided to sit in that compartment too, but went somewhere and was yet to return. Of course, as long as he or she wasn't offending what he held dear, Johann didn't mind the company, so he was cool with that. Finally, a red-haired girl showed up, with another girl, blond with her hair made into two pigtails, following her closely while caring her bags. Being the gentleman his mother taught him to be, Johann helped the girl with her things, effortlessly placing them on the luggage cupboard.

"Mind if my friend sits there too?" The redhead asked him. Johann shook his head.

"No, not at all. Some company would be nice." He replied, sitting back on his seat. "Anyway, I don't think we're introduced, my ladies. I'm Johann Arcs." The dark-haired wizard added.

"Susan Bones." The red-haired girl introduced herself. "And this is my friend, Hannah Abbot." The blond girl waved her hand shyly.

"Nice to meet you, ladies." The green-eyed wizard said, making two girls blush a little. Eventually, the trio started talking among themselves. Johann learned that Susan lived with her aunt, Amelia, who happened to be the current head of DMLE at the Ministry of magic. Her parents died in some incident when she was five, so her aunt was her only close living relative. Also, Susan was friends with Hannah for the longest time. Johann also learned that Hannah's family, Abbots, were running some business in the wizarding part of Manchester... When it was his time to talk about his family, Johann was surprised that Susan knew about his mother – even in muggle world only so many have heard about her, as the female swordsmanship wasn't very popular. It turned out that Susan's aunt was kind of following lives of the strong and independent women in England, be they politicians, sportswomen, artists or... After talking about their families, the children switched to the topic of what the Hogwarts will be like. At that moment they were interrupted by a red-haired boy with lots of freckles on his face and slightly dirty nose.

"Have you seen Harry Potter around there?" Johann, Susan and Hannah shook their heads. "Oh damn it, where is he?"

"Don't know." The dark-haired wizard said. "Who's that, your friend?" Red-haired boy's face reddened in anger.

"How can you not know who Harry Potter is? He's the greatest wizard after Albus Dumbledore and he is the one who defeated You-know-who! And he will be my best friend!" The boy proclaimed. Johann shrugged.

"Haven't seen anyone other than these two lovely ladies since the train departed."

"Merlin's beard, where is he?" The boy muttered under his breath, before continuing on his search for some Harry Potter, whoever he was.

"I hope, not all wizards are this much weird?" The dark-haired wizard commented. The girls shook their heads.

"No, he must be some kind of fan or something... I still don't understand the whole fascination with Harry Potter – yes, they say he survived the killing curse, but did he really do that on his own? Auntie thinks it was not like that and his parents must have placed some kind of protective ward on him, before they were killed." Susan replied. "Anyway, what do you think charms will be like? I've heard that the professor is really kind and joyous..."

**~/ *** \~**

Hundreds miles away, in the house at 29, Magnolia lane, Little Whinging, Surrey, Sephiria, now dressed in just some training pants and a loose T-shirt, was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, hugging large soft pillow to her chest. Large TV was working in the background, but the blond swords mistress wasn't listening to it at all... The Hogwarts express had departed just several hours ago, but she was already missing her 'Han'y'. Hugging the pillow closer to her chest, Sephiria let her mind wander into having Johann there, in her embrace... Damn it, why did it feel like she was falling for him? Sighing, Sephiria tried to redirect her thought somewhere else, before she started imagining herself doing inappropriate things with 'Han'y'...

**~/ *** \~**

Completely unaware of his mother's _problem_, Johann Arcs, along with the rest of the first-years was waiting for the sorting ceremony to start. Hogwarts was completely, well, magical, and singing hat that was to do the sorting was only further confirming that... Finally, professor McGonagall, the deputy headmistress, opened the scroll with the names.

"Abbot, Hannah." She announced. The blond girl Johann rode the train with shyly approached the stool and placed the hat onto her head. Just a couple of seconds later, it opened its 'mouth'.

"**Hufflepuff.**" It announced to the whole Great hall. Immediately, Hannah's robes changed into her house's color scheme. The girl removed the hat and, standing up, placed it on the stool, before joining the table of yellow and black, while the upper-years and many of her peers applauded.

"Arcs, Johann." McGonagall read from the scroll. The dark-haired wizard quickly yet gracefully – his footwork training for the "petal dance" was good for something outside battlefield too – approached the stool and, like Hannah before him, placed the hat onto his head.

'_Quite an interesting mind you do have here, mr. Arcs._' Johann heard a voice inside his head. '_Don't worry, young one, nothing I learn during sorting can be shared anyone else. Rowena herself spelled me for this kind of confidentiality. Anyway... back to sorting you, mr. Arcs. You have a sharp mind, no doubt, but you lack the true thirst for knowledge Rowena valued so much... You are fine warrior like Godric himself, mr. Arcs, and you have your own sense of honor, but house of Griffindor too wouldn't be the best for you..._'

'_So it is between Slytherin and Hufflepuff then?_' Johann asked the hat in his thoughts. It nodded... well, moved in a way that could be interpreted as a nod.

'_Indeed, mr Arcs, Slytherin or Hufflepuff... You are cunning and you do hold an ambition, even it lies not in the world of magic. Yet you also know the value of hard work, and you are fiercely loyal to those, who, you think, deserve your loyalty..._' The hat mused in his mind. '_Where should I sort you?.. Slytherin as it was under Salazar's guidance would do well for you, but right now, I'm afraid, you won't fit within the snake lair... Yes, indeed... You place is not in the house of Salazar, mr. Arcs. It is decided: you better be..._' "**Hufflepuff!**" Johann could swear that his name was shouted twice as loud as Hannah's was... Shrugging at this thought, the green-eyed wizard placed the hat on the stool and proceeded towards 'his' table.

"Hey, why did it take you so long? Had to beg the hat to sort you somewhere, squib?" A boy with messy dark hair of strange color – did he try to color it? - and dull-green eyes asked a loud, making many boy and a couple of girl, all yet to be sorted, snicker. The redhead from the train and some blond pounce were among them. But as soon as they saw each other laughing, they stopped and glared at each other. This made Johann chuckle...

"Hello there, young lady." He said, sitting next to Hannah, who blushed and giggled a little... Professor McGonagall finished reprimanding the boy who asked that rude question about Johann's sorting and called the next person to be sorted: Susan Bones. The red-haired girl soon joined her two friends at the Hufflepuff table. "And welcome to the badger collective, lady Susan. ...It seems that we're the 'Puff trio now." Girls smiled – it was good to have your friends so close... The sorting went on, and now all of the houses got some firsties. Indian girl be the name Parvati Patil went to Gryffindor while her twin Padma joined Ravenclaw.

"Potter, Harry." McGonagall announced. Almost instantly the entire Great hall exploded into agitated whispers about the said boy. Johann, also, recognized the Potter as the boy who made that rude comment about him. While the boy walked towards the stool on which the sorting hat sat – and did it in the way like he owned the Hogwarts – Johann whispered to his two friends that the 'hero of the magical world' could have be less rude. Susan and Hannah agreed with him, and the 'Puff trio returned to watching Potter's sorting... In dragged for minutes, with boy's face shifting through fear, anger and annoyance, before the hat, finally, sent him into the Griffindor house, much to their delight...

**~/ *** \~**

Lord Voldemort, still alive, even if just as a shade that parasitized on others, watched the sorting through the eyes of his current container: Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Quirinus Quirrell. The dark lord did a quick scans of all first years students, and two of those students picked his interest. They were Johann Arcs and Harry Potter. Potter brat, unlike what he had expected was mediocre in terms of the magical power – even if he was more knowledgeable than average firstie – which made lord Voldemort wonder, if the boy really was the child of the prophecy and not the Longbottom heir. Arcs, on the other hand, had both powerful magic and sharp mind, even if his knowledge of the wizarding world was quite limited. And he also got a strange feeling from the boy, though he couldn't put his finger on what it was exactly...

'_I will need to keep an eye on both of them. On Potter brat just so that he doesn't screw my plans with his stupid luck and gryffindork foolishness. Arcs, though... If I approach him in the right way, he can become a good underling for me... I need to think about the way to bring him on my side..._' The dark lord then thought about the way Arcs would destroy mudbloods for him, and had to resist the urge to laugh evilly – he didn't need the old fool to notice him...


	15. Naruto & Elfen Lied crossover :: Neosage

**Naruto/Elfen Lied crossover :: Neo-sage**  
_deviates fro__m __Elfen Lied canon volume 8, chapter 74 and volume 12, chapter 106. Anime has no such scenes at all._

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" or "_**Elfen Lied**_"

**_

* * *

_Jutsu list**:_  
_unnamed Enma's judgment technique - (secret jutsu) - Calls forth 'god's' head that can rip and judge human souls. 'Bad' souls are devoured into the world of hell.  
**Kamui** - (sharingan special ability) God's majesty - Creates a rip in the fabric of time and space in the point specified by user. Controllable black hole in other words... Naruto can brute-force this technique through his Juubi's eyes.  
**Izanagi** - (sharingan and rinnengan special ability) Forefather God - Allows user to make his fantasies real and turn reality into nothing more than an illusion. Only Rikudou Sennin and Naruto (on much much smaller scale) can use this jutsu without any side-effects (losing an eye that casts the technique). Izanagi still requires great amounts of chakra.  
**Iijutsu fuuin: sousou saisei** - (secret fuuinjutsu) medical seal: heavenly rebirth - Original seal that allows very fast healing - more like rebuilding target's body... Seal user is the one who creates matter needed in the regeneration, thus straining seal caster, not the one who it is used on. Can't be applied to self.  
**Iijutsu shichifuuin: hensei** - (secret fuuinjutsu) medical seal #7: regeneration - much like **Iijutsu fuuin: sousou saisei**, but works a bit slower and isn't as much straining for the user as it takes some of the matter needed for regenerated body parts from the one it is used on. This seal can't be applied on someone with really grievous wounds or someone whose body can't spare enough matter for regeneration, as it can kill the 'target'.

**Other notes**:  
* Naruto in this story appears to look much like Madara (when he fought Hashirama), just without armor. His hair is blondish-gray and has Juubi's eyes + shades to hide those from people. He looks to be about thirty five and doesn't age. (he can be killed though - not that it's easy... or just very difficult... you'll have to drop a nuke on him to do any real damage to him...)  
* Origa is Japanese version of Russian name 'Olga'. Why this name for #28? Lucy - Mariko - Nana - ... ^_^

* * *

**~/ *** \~**

Mayu and Nana froze in fear as the door slid open and a tall and lanky man with dark slick hair peeked into the room. He was wearing black coat, a hat and round sunglasses, along with some device in a hard bag that made Nana very uneasy...

"And who might you be?" The man sneered at the girls. "Lucy isn't here." He observed, before letting out a string of curses under his breath.

"S-so... what kind of business do you..." Mayu started asking, while standing up... The man kicked her in the stomach, sending her back on the floor, moaning from pain. Nana jumped to protect her friend, but the man drew a crossbow and fired a spiked ball at the diclonius girl, making her join the human one one the floor and in a world of pain.

"Stupid useless thing." The man sneered, while sending his bag across the room and into the wall. There was a sound of a deformed metal, followed by a quiet peeping, while a trickle of blood started flowing through a crack in the bag... "Stupid thing can even find a single wayward silpelit... Oh well there is still one I can play with there. An if not... I can see, how is it, to rape a human girl..." The man let out a slightly maniacal laughter, before making a step towards Nana...

"Ahem..." Another voice said behind the back of the 'evil silpelit hunter'. Moment later another man materialized there out of thin air. He was tall and well built and was looking to be in his late thirties. He too wore a coat, but dark-gray one, and shades. His long and spiky blondish-gray hair gave him strange roguish but sagely appearance... "I'm afraid, circumstances have me interfering with the natural order of things..." The newer man said in sagely voice. "As for you..." He sent a glare to the 'hunter'... "You don't deserve even eternal flames of hell, but they are the worst I can give you." Mayu, who started recovering from hit, could have sword that she saw something glowing red behind 'sage's' shades...

"Who are you, scum?" The 'hunter' demanded, but the gray-haired man paid him no attention.

"**Judge him, Enma.**" The 'sage' did a small gesture with his left hand, and a ring of purple flames sprang to life behind him. Out of these flames rose an ugly head with purple markings on its face and golden kanji for God in the forehead. The head opened its mouth wide, and sickly hand shot at the 'hunter', making him scream bloody murder when those arms connected with his body... Then the arms ripped a bluish specter of man's soul out of his body and dragged it into head's mouth. As soon as the soul was devoured, the head sank into the floor and the flames disappeared, leaving no sign that there ever were there at all... After kicking hunter's body for a good measure, the sagely man lifted ...him into the air. "**Kamui!**" A vortex of dark energy, much like a miniature black hole, sucked the body away, leaving no traces that it had ever been there... Done with that, the gray-haired man ...floated towards Nana and knelt next to her. "Sorry..." He whispered to the diclonius girl, as he ripped the spiked ball out of her body. "She's under effects of some pain-inducing poison, but should be fine quite soon." He told Mayu. "Now... Let's see, what's with that poor soul... Oh. I suggest you look away if you don't want to have nightmares."

"O-OK." Mayu quickly nodded and closed her eyes. He raised his hand and several threads of bluish energy grew out of his fingers and towards the deformed 'bag' on the floor. The 'sage' made a pulling gesture, and the bag was ripped apart, revealing some machinery a diclonius girl. A diclonius girl, whose body was cut just under her lungs – that was not counting her arms being missing. The girl was conscious and under excruciating pain, crying silently as she couldn't make a sound... And one of the pipes from the machinery had disconnected from her body, making girl's blood leak out of her body and onto the floor...

'_Poor, poor girl... what they have done to you..._' The sagely man thought as he evaluated silpelit girl's condition. '_And I can't use __**Izanagi**__ as it is – I don't have enough precision to make you whole again correctly... Looks like we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way..._' He turned to the dead 'hunter'. "For once in your existence you will do something good." The sage said as he drew a strange knife from his sleeve and made a cut on dead man's neck. He became a blur then, and half a minute later there was a big array of symbols drawn in blood on the floor... Using the same energy threads that ripped the bag apart, the 'sage' disconnected the girl from the machinery and levitated her to the center of the sealing array he had drawn moments before. "**Iijutsu fuuin: sousou saisei!**" [medical seal: heavenly rebirth] The explosion of greenish and bluish light from the seal that followed those words had Mayu open her eyes... And the girl saw something she would never believe could be possible: right in front of her eyes, in less that thirty seconds, a human – well, diclonius'... – body was completely regrown and brought back to its pristine condition. Possibly with some improvements...

"Wow..." Mayu breathed out... The sagely man, who now had beads of sweat on his forehead, ignored her for now, and placed his right index finger against silpelit girl's forehead and sent a pulse of energy through it. Then the same energy threads as before raised the now healed – but also unconscious – girl into the air.

"**Izanagi!**" Out of nowhere, simple white pajamas appeared, covering girl's naked form. At the same time, an opened sleeping bag appeared under her. Done with this, the sage lowered the girl into the sleeping bag. "She'll be sleeping for next several hours." He said to Mayu. "I had wiped her memories, so should she wake up, she'll still be harmless." He continued, as he sat against the wall with his right hand resting on silpelit girl's chest, right above her heart. "I'll sleep there for a couple of hours? I may be strong, but I too have my limits: healing such extensive damage takes a lot out of me." With that words he drifted into light sleep...

* * *

About an hour later, the sage woke up as his powers were restored... well, more like his body was ready for him using his powers again – after all, he did have more energy than even his enhanced body could handle in one go... Disposing the bag the same way he had dealt with 'hunter's' body, the sage encased still unconscious silpelit girl's sleeping bag with a wooden support structure, so he could move her with less concentration-demanding methods than energy strings and not fear doing some damage to her in the process... Before finally leaving the house, the sage created a copy of himself from a solidified energy and sent it to heal the other diclonius girl – Nana was her name? - from the wound inflicted by tearing that poisoned spiked ball from her body.

* * *

Mayu was sitting over the bed where Nana was recovering from the events that transpired an hour ago, when the 'sage' walked into the room. His eye, still hidden behind his shades, scanned the purple-haired girl.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything?" He asked innocently, making both girls blush. As they shook their heads, he approached the bed. "Mostly superficial wound from that bastard... Oh... You have your limbs missing?" The gray-haired man asked in a whisper "And for quite some time too... Repairing it now will not be as easy as it would have being a couple of months ago... But boss gave me enough power to deal with this too..."

"Boss?" Nana asked in surprise: Mayu told her what this man did... Who, or better yet, how powerful, must have been the one who ordered him around then?

"Boss is the real me. I'm just an energy construct with boss' abilities and an imprint of his mind." The sagely man said. "I can be called his clone."

"O-OK." Both girls said, unsure how to react to such information...

"Anyway, boss tasked me with healing you." With a slight movement of his fingers, the 'clone' removed the covers and detached Nana's artificial arms and legs. Then he once again drew a knife from his sleeve and made a cut on his finger to draw some blood. "This will take a lot out of you, so I suggest a good meal as soon as we're done." He added, before unbuttoning lower part of Nana's pajama top and drawing a kanji for 'healing' on her skin with his blood. "**Iijutsu shichifuuin: hensei!**" [medical seal 7: regeneration] The drawn symbol glowed red briefly, and the process of regeneration started. Unlike the case with the 'just number 28' who the boss had to practically drag from death's grip, this time there was no need in creating all the matter needed for the regeneration, so the process was much less straining for 'the sage'. On the other hand, Nana's body had to use some of it's reserves to recreate her limbs, so... That's why the 'clone' advised a good meal... Two minutes later, Nana's body was whole again, even if the girl looked like she hadn't eaten anything in weeks. "Well, we're done here."

"Thank you, sage-san." The silpelit girl said in a tired a dry voice – aftereffects of the regeneration – as tried to sit up on the bed, using her new limbs. The gray-haired man's clone just smiled and shrugged in response.

"Um-m..." Mayu said unsurely. "Sage-san, can you help Bandou-san too? His arm was..." The girl stopped, suddenly finding herself looking into sage's eyes – inhuman, eyes with tiny a bit slitted pupils, red irises and many black rings on both irises and whites, three inner rings of each eye having three comma-like ...thing on them... It even took her a couple of seconds to understand that this was the first time she saw him without shades...

"I can. But he will not accept it: he's a warrior and knows the meaning of this loss. He will not accept me giving him his arm back." A moment later, the sage was by the door out of the room, his shades covering his eyes again. "Should we meet again... I'm widely known as the second sage. But I do have a name: Naruto." And he broke into wisps of black energy that disappeared moments later...

**~/ *** \~**

Several days later, Naruto was lying in the bed with his ninth – in thirty two millenia – wife, number 28, or, as her name now was, Origa, enjoying each other in the afterglow of their lovemaking, when one of the sensor arrays went haywire.

"Looks like Lucy has started on that path..." The gray-haired sage commented. "We should interfere, or, who knows, what will happen there..." Origa moaned, not wanting to get out of the bed, but knowing that Naruto was going to wherever Lucy was whooping things up, rolled from under the covers and, using her vectors, summoned her bodysuit and a sniper rifle to herself... It was time to do some work...


	16. Suna Naruto story prologue

**Title** : Suna no sekitou  
**Author**: NHunter aka N.H. aka 夜狩猟家aka 灰色天使  
**Genre**: General  
**Rating**: T = R (for this intro)  
**Pairing**: Naruto U. and others  
**Warnings**: AU; OOC; female Gaara; partial response to **Dracohalo 117**'s 'Naruto hates Yondaime Hokage' challenge; crazy author...**  
Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_". No profit is being made.

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*** Jutsu list**:  
**Kawarimi no jutsu**, Bunshin and **Henge no jutsu** - you all already know what are those.  
**Nawanuke no jutsu** - escaping ropes and other similar forms of confinement.  
**Bikou ninjutsu** - shadowing the target (by whatever means you can).

* * *

**Suna no sekitou: Prologue**

Hating a child for what his father did is stupid. Especially when the said child's father had saved you lot from the death by his actions. Yet, Konoha was not exactly know for being a village of smart people... So little Naruto was hated, scorned, detested, abused and beaten for keeping a mighty beast at bay in the seal on his stomach. He was hated so much, that just after his fifth birthday, he could not take it anymore. He ran away, never looking back to the village he was born in, with the first merchant caravan to leave the village... This caravan just happened to be heading to Suna. Good job, Konoha, you just drove your jinchuuriki away.

Yondaime Kazekage was a bastard barely better than fourth Hokage for he too had sealed a tailed beast into his own child, but he was doing everything in his power to protect the village and he _did_ make it clear that the jinchuuriki of Ichibi no Shukaku was to be treated as the one who will bring glory to the village, even if the said jinchuuriki wasn't exactly stable... And, of course, Yondaime Kazekage welcomed Naruto with open arms – who would miss a chance to get an absolutely stable jinchuuriki with the perfect seal, a jinchuuriki of the strongest bijuu out there, to become a part of your village? – and made sure that the blond had everything he needed to become the best shinobi he could be, something that Konoha had failed to do. Yes, Naruto was happy in his new home...

**~/ *** \~**

Ten years old Naruto Uzumaki (though, he looked to be older, around thirteen) was walking towards the shinobi academy of his village. Today he _will_ graduate and be on his way to become the Kage of his village... Sunagakure no Sato. Surely, the blond liked warm forests of the Fire country more than dry and hot sands of the deserts that surrounded Suna, but this was his home and he would do anything to protect it.

The Kyuubi jinchuuriki was dressed in more or less standard clothes of Suna shinobi, namely sandy-gray long-sleeved shirt with slightly darker overclothes over it, dark-gray pants, and a wore a turban on his head. And, of course, let's not forget his personal weapons, golden bracers that doubled as armor. These were very special to Naruto as they were a gift from his mentor, a female jounin named Pakura who took him under her wing when his unnaturally-strong affinity for fire was discovered. These bracers allowed him to form his fire-based chakra into blades of liquid, almost solid, fire that could 'cut' through practically anything. And because of these, Naruto was already given a moniker, even if he was still an academy student. He was Suna no sekitou, Red blade of the Hidden Sand...

Arriving to the academy and to his classroom, the blond proceeded to his usual seat, ignoring the girls whose fangirl tendencies academy teachers were unable to break. At least they all were more or less capable... From what he had heard, Konoha allowed absolutely useless kunoichi to be deployed in the field. Well, it was their problem, and Naruto all but wished that it would lead to the downfall of the village that had drove him away with their hate...

The exam finally started, and, it started with something Naruto held great dislike for: written part. There were several questions, but all of them were important: general battle tactics of Suna shinobi forces and Suna allies, general battle tactics of Iwa and other enemies, basic security protocols for messages sent from remote locations... And another one question, personal for each student: describe an S-rank ninja whose name was given, write his or her abilities, strengths and weaknesses, tactics most commonly used and other valuable information about that person. Naruto got the current Raikage, E... Writing about that man wasn't very difficult as all of his abilities were well known.

Once the written part was over, the students had to go outside, where their general fitness, throwing weapon skills and taijutsu were tested. All of that was easy for the blond, especially with that special training he had under his belt thanks to Pakura-shishou. The final part of the exam – they had to demonstrate their proficiency with **kawarimi no jutsu**, **henge no jutsu**, some kind of a bunshin, **bikou ninjutsu** and **nawanuke no jutsu**, as well as one other technique of their choice – was just as easy for Naruto... So some five hours after the genin exam started, Naruto walked out of the academy with his Suna hitae-ate on a dark-gray, almost black, bandana, replacing his turban: he looked much cooler this way!

After a quick lunch, newly-graduated Naruto headed to his favorite spot in the village: the oasis around which it was built, and one of the few green spot there. Sitting under a large tree, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki relaxed and let his mind wander... After several random memories went in front of his eyes, a certain one started playing:

_**flashback**_

_Eight years old Naruto stood in front of the Kazekage, who, like always, was sitting behind his table, doing some paperwork of his. The blond jinchuuriki waited patiently for the man to stop staring at the papers and switch his attention to him. Finally that happened._

"_You summoned me, Kazekage-sama?" The little blond asked, while looking into the village leader's eyes. The man nodded._

"_Yes, I did, Naruto-san." While normally Kazekage didn't bother to remember his ninja's name, especially of those who were still attending the academy, but the jinchuuriki of Kyuubi was a very special case, so the Wind shadow always addressed him by name. "There is something important I need to tell you."_

"_What that would be, Kazekage-sama?" Naruto asked, still looking into the man's eyes._

"_You already know that Kyuubi no Yoko is sealed in you, right?" The blond jinchuuriki nodded. "Then, I'd like to tell you who did the sealing of the beast. That would be Konoha's Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato ...and also your father." The last bit hit Naruto like a ton of bricks falling on his head from a considerable height._

"_So you're telling me that... that man sealed the Kyuubi in me and died, leaving me to be despised by Konoha?" Well, Kazekage himself too had sealed a bijuu into his child, but unlike Minato-teme he was still there to support the jinchuuriki and shield her from the hate the village might have towards her... No one needed a psychotic demon container on the loose, after all._

"_That would be right." Kazekage said with a nod. This caused the anger Naruto felt towards his ...__**biological**__ father to grow even further, so much that it started weakening the seal, causing reddish aura of malice surround the blond._

"_**That bastard!**__" He growled while his appearance continued to change due to the yoki running through him: his whisker-like marks on his cheeks became more pronounced, his eyes were now red and slitted, his incisors grew into fangs and his nails turned into beastly claws..._

"_Stop it!" The Suna leader shouted, getting the attention of the boy in front of him, while releasing some of his gold sand in case the boy was unable to calm down on his own. "It is quite alright to feel angry, but, please do so somewhere you will not cause a lot of property damage." Naruto sighed, retaking control over his emotions._

"_Sorry, Kazekage-sama." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki said, shaking his head._

"_No, as I said, you have your right to be angry." The man said. "Just remember that regardless of how you feel towards Konoha, they are our allies at this point of time and, once you graduate, you need to be ready to work with them." Naruto nodded, while bringing his emotions completely under his control – those damned meditation exercises that Pakura-shishou had him doing were finally paying off somewhere._

"_Just one more question, Kazekage-sama." The blond spoke then. "Why am I told about this only now?"_

"_I would have preferred to wait even longer, but you do deserve full knowledge about your ...tenant more than anyone else... As for why? That is quite simple, and you've already showed the reason."_

"_You were not sure that I could handle the knowledge." Naruto said quietly after a couple of seconds of thinking. The Kazekage nodded._

"_Indeed. You barely managed to control your emotions right now. If I were to disclose this information to you earlier... Let's say that I do not wish to have a berserk jinchuuriki in my village." The blond nodded: he could understand the reasoning._

"_Now, if you still wish to vent you anger on something, I went ahead and booked training field eight for you for today. You shishou was also notified and she will be there to help you ...or to contain you, should the need arise."_

"_Thank you, Kazekage-sama. Am I dismissed?" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki asked. The Kazekage nodded._

"_Yes, you can go, Naruto-san." And not wanting to bother the Suna leader with his presence any longer, Naruto left his office, heading straight to the training field that was booked for him: he did need to destroy something._

_**end of the flashback**_

That day was the first time he had successfully materialized his fire blades, even without a proper medium. That day was also the only time when he cried while in Suna, and, unlike his times in Konoha, that time he had his shishou to comfort him... Still, even now the Kyuubi jinchuuriki despised the Yondaime Hokage, his denounced _sire_, for what the man did to him. And the Sandaime Hokage for what the old monkey did not do to help him... But he was a shinobi – or would be in a couple of years – and were he given an order to work with Konoha ...ninjas, he would do so.

Shaking his head, he forced himself to think about happier memories, like the final stage of his training to utilize his fire blades, and how proud Pakura-shishou was when he completed the technique (his mind was old enough to appreciate being hugged with his face between her breasts back then, and now his body was catching up).

Another memory Naruto was very fond of was his time with Gaara, the other jinchuuriki of the Hidden Sand. The redhead, despite being of roughly the same age as him, treated him like an older brother, and, despite her unstable personality – insomnia caused by Shukaku was to blame – was actually quite nice to be around. To think of it, she might even be crushing on him a bit... Naruto shrugged: he didn't think that their relationship will ever leave the brother-sisterly one. But should that happen somehow... Well, Gaara was a cute girl, and will only get prettier as she will become a teenager.

Shaking his head, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki looked up at the sky. It looked like it was about five in the afternoon now. His shishou promised to be back from her mission this evening, so he might as well go to her house to greet her. Yep, that was the plan. So getting up, Naruto dusted his clothes and headed to his shishou's house to brag about finally becoming a genin.

* * *

**Story Adoption**  
This stub is free to adopt for everyone for as long as you're going to follow these simple rules:  
* Naruto is to be paired with Suna girl (Sari or Matsuri are preferred; fem-Gaara is OK, but...; Temari is NOT OK).  
* Naruto is chuunin-level at the moment of graduation. He has his fire blades (kind of like psi-blades of dark templars from StarCraft) and some C and D ranked katon ninjutsu. He is to be developing into those areas and in fuuinjutsu. He doesn't use Kyuubi unless absolutely necessary and has mutual-hate relationship with the fox.  
* Naruto must never switch to being Konoha nin!  
* Lemons later on would be lovely. *wink* But wait till he's at least 13 (he's 10 right now)  
* Naruto must become chuunin before the chuunin exams in Konoha. He must also discover Orochimaru impersonating the Kazekage.  
* Have fun! And do not forget to give me the link to your story.


	17. Naruto & NGE crossover :: Angel summoner

**Naruto / Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover :: Angel summoner**

* * *

"And today, brat, I'll give you a one in the lifetime chance to sign the legendary Toad summoning contract." Jiraya the sannin, otherwise know as the super-pervert said to his current apprentice of sorts, Uzumaki Naruto. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki though, didn't seem to be impressed.

"Toads? Don't wanna toads. They are unsightly!" The damned brat yelled loudly, causing Jiraya to develop a tick mark on his forehead, and the girls that he was planning to spy on to flee from the location... Angry at the blond in front of him for calling toads ugly, the white-haired perv kicked him hard, sending him into the nearest tree.

"In that case I have nothing to teach you." He said coldly. "Get lost." Naruto pulled himself out of the tree and spit some blood, several drops of which ended on his fingers.

"Who needs you anyway!" The brat shouted, trying to appear tougher than he actually was. "I get my own cool summon!" He added, before doing the handseals needed for the **kuchiyose no jutsu** – why again had he shown those to the brat, Jiraya wondered. Then the brat slammed his hands against the ground and the jutsu activated, making the blond boy disappear in a poof of smoke.

'_Oh shit! Sensei is going to kill me._' Was the thought that flashed through self-proclaimed super-pervert's mind at that moment.

**~/ *** \~**

No one had seen Naruto after that incident, and, after several days, the rumors about him running away from the village started spreading. Neji – Naruto's opponent for the finals of the chuunin exam – thought that the blond was actually wise and had spared himself the humiliation of being defeated in front of the spectators: the arrogant Hyuuga boy (foolishly) thought that he was going to win that match no matter what because it was his fate...

A few seconds before the first match was to start, the blond decided to make an appearance, walking onto the arena like nothing had happened... He seemed to have grown up a bit and matured more than a little bit. The most noticeable change about him, though, was his attire: he no longer was wearing that hideous orange jumpsuit. Right now he was wearing dark-orange and black tiger-striped T-shirt, gray cargo pants and black overclothes with orange flames on it.

"Am I late?" The blond asked. "It appears that I got lost on the road of life." Everyone who knew Kakashi had face-palmed.

"No, you're right on time." Genma the proctor replied. "Your match will start in a minute..." Then the jounin used chakra to make his voice stronger and announced: "The first match of the finals, Naruto Uzumaki versus Hyuuga Neji, both of Konohagakure no Sato, will commence in a few seconds." Returning his voice to normal, Genma told the other genin to leave the arena. "Are you two ready?" The proctor asked then, addressing to the two genin. Both nodded. "In this case... Hajime!"

"Why have you come back, dead-last?" Neji asked. "The moment you stepped on this arena, you lost. This your fate." Naruto laughed.

"Fate? I don't believe in fate." He then bit his finger to draw some blood. "And I can defeat you with a single jutsu." He said, while deliberately slowly doing handseals for the summoning technique.

"You can't beat me, loser." The Hyuuga boy said arrogantly. "Because fate has already declared me as the winner." ...The Kyuubi jinchuuriki slammed his hands against the ground, causing the sealing formula to appear. But there was no poof of smoke, no animal appearing some other way, nothing. "See, you failed. It was you fate." Naruto shook his head, while an evil smirk crept onto his face.

"Actually... It worked as I intended." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki replied... Seeing nothing that could be considered dangerous for him, Neji charged at his opponent, ready to kill him with a single strike. But he was stopped when a beam of golden light coming from the sky hit him. The said beam didn't look like it was dealing any kind of physical damage, but it made the Hyuuga boy clutch his head and scream, crying for someone unseen to stop torturing him and to leave him alone... Thirty seconds later the beam disappeared, while still conscious, but completely unresponsive to the real world, Neji collapsed on the arena floor.

"...Winner of the first match, Uzumaki Naruto." Genma announced, while medics were taking Neji away. Naruto shrugged and started walking towards the participants' booth...

**~/ *** \~**

Some hundred kilometers above Konoha a big... huge yet elegant 'bird' was floating on the edge of Earth's atmosphere. Its body looked like it was composed of the white and blue light and was slowly pulsing as the magnificent creature was sorting through the images she had ripped off her target's mind.

She was Arael, the thirteenth child of _the Father_, Adam, and was titled as the angel of birds. Being born as the strongest psionic in existence, she was always curious about how lilim minds worked... That was pretty much the reason why she agreed to become a partner for one such lilim: he agreed to give all the _research materials_ she needed in exchange for her help in his fights against other lilim...

There was another reason for their partnership, though. Arael found the boy, despite his numerous quirks, to be a good potential mate – like all direct children of _the Father_, she had multiple forms, one of which was of a teenage white-haired golden-eyed girl – and she wan not going to let him be taken by someone else... While her and her brothers' and sisters' primary mission was to return _the Father_ to their home, their other task was to bring the Renaissance to their world, and even though this Naruto was a lilim, he was worthy of creating a new life with her... And mating just felt so damn good... Especially when he was duplicating himself... Good thing that she couldn't blush in her 'bird' form. But then again, there was no one around to see her blush at the naughty thoughts that were swarming in her mind.

Anyway, her task for today wasn't finished yet, as Naruto was to have another two fights, so Arael, instead of going down to the surface and taking her 'human' form for some fun with her summoner, continued floating in the cold empty space, waiting for the next _research material_ of hers to begin fighting her summoner...


	18. Naruto & CnC:TS crossover

personal review response to **Sage of Eyes**: no not all of them

* * *

And to anyone not intimately familiar with Tiberium universe: Ichor is the Scrin (Aliens / Invaders / Tiberium seeders) name for Tiberium, and I'm using this one in the stub. This second and original name was uncovered in the third (and the last that I personally accept) part of the saga.

* * *

*** Jutsu list:  
Chidori** - (A-rank) Thousand birds - piercing damage type assassination technique of lightning element.  
**Ichor bunretsu: ion jikiarashi** - (special technique) Ichor element: ion storm - creation of a localized ion storm.

* * *

**Naruto / C&C Tiberian Sun crossover :: Ichor no Naruto**

Naruto was standing on the head of Hashirama's statue, glaring at the traitor by the name of Sasuke Uchiha, who, in turn, was on the head of Madara's statue... So far the battle between the two was even and neither Naruto could defeat his opponent to drag him back to Konoha, nor Sasuke was able to kill the damned Kyuubi brat to be able to go to Orichimaru to get the power the serpentine sannin had promised him.

"It looks like I'll have to unleash my secret power after all." The blond shinobi mused out aloud.

"Ha! As if a looser like you can have anything that can compare with the might of Uchiha!" The raven-haired avenger shouted, trying to piss the orange-wearing annoyance off, so that he could kill it easily.

"And yet, I'm able to match you might with my own even as I am right now." Naruto replied in an almost uncharacteristically calm voice. "Now then..." He bit his finger and made handseals for the summoning technique, but without accessing his chakra. And once he slammed his hands against the stone, he pushed his chakra and tiny green crystals know to him as Ichor in the mass of microorganisms that lived on the stone, mutating them into something ...alien. ...Sharingan that Sasuke had activated could clearly see a mass of organics growing around Naruto's palms, quickly turning into huge floating jelly-fish-like creature with the green lightnings appearing here and there around its tentacles... This was the same creature that the Kyuubi brat had 'summoned' to stop Gaara when he had transformed into Shukaku... Back then the blond had claimed that those things were his summons, but now the young Uchiha knew those words to be a lie...

And even though the dark-haired avenger had seen a similar creature – only ten times as big – immobilize and damage a tailed beast, albeit a weaker one, the cursed seal was clouding his judgement and making him think that this creature was of no danger to him. Not that his ego would allow him to think otherwise, cursed seal or not...

"It's time you die, dobe, and give me the power I deserve!" Sasuke yelled, activating **chidori** in his left hand. The lightning, though, was of an unusual dark-purple color thanks to the tainted chakra of the cursed seal that the boy was using.

"I'm wont die until I'm Hokage, teme!" Naruto shouted back, growing a big blue crystal in his hand, while the veins of his arm got a strange greenish glow to them... Once the crystal was complete, the blond threw it into the approaching Uchiha, who, instinctively, protected himself with his 'wing'. The crystal shattered into a fine dust.

"What a worthless attack. Just like you are, dobe!" Sasuke said as he 'fanned' the dust away with the 'wing' of his, causing tiny crystals to rub against each other and begin accumulating electrical charges. Not that the raven-haired boy would have noticed this as he was too much focused on ending the Kyuubi jinchuuriki's life...

"**Ichor bunretsu: ion jikiarashi.**" Naruto whispered the moment a powerful lightning bolt hit Uchiha's back, moment later followed by two more. Their combined power was enough to knock the arrogant avenger out of his cursed seal's second level and sent severely electrocuted boy towards the ground with **chidori** dying in his hand...

Using his control over crystals – the result of Kyuubi-aided assimilation with the Ichor that he had underwent years ago... mostly because he was foolish to touch unknown crystals when he had found them – Naruto reformed the blue crystal from the dust in the air, making the ion storm disappear. Meanwhile the creature he had created earlier flew down and restrained Sasuke with its tectacles.

"How is it, teme? You lost to me. And now I'm going to drag your sorry ass back Konoha." The blond shinobi said.

"I'm the Uchiha! Unhand me this very moment so that I can take the power that is rightfully mine!" Naruto sent a mental command to the creature, and it shocked the avenger with a powerful lightining, knocking him unconscious.

"Sorry, teme, but you are much better when you keep you mouth closed." Sending another mental command, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and his ...summon were on their way back to the village Hidden in the Leaves...


	19. HP & YGC xover :: his savior with a gun

**Harry Potter / **(kind of)** Young Gun Carnaval crossover :: his savior with a gun**

_The girl in this stub is the same as **Yumika Tetsuyoshi** in all but her name – she's British here, not Japanese. Also, in this story she works for MI5. Pay no mind to that._

* * *

Nine years old Harry Potter was not having a good day. First, he once again somehow managed to score more than fifty points in the math test – since his aunt had spread the rumors of him being stupid and delinquent in the making, the teacher thought that he had cheated, and he got punished... again – but what was even worse, he had scored more points than his obese cousin Dudley did... So right now Dudley and his gang were trying to catch Harry to beat him. And this didn't mean that Vernon and Petunia Dursley won't beat him again when they would learn about his ..._misbehavior_.

So the green-eyed boy was trying his best to escape at least one of the beating. Namely he was trying to run from the Dudley's gang... While those four boys weren't as fit as he was, and, normally, he could outrun them, today the Fate decided that things shouldn't be like that, and an ill-timed appearance of a group of even younger pupils caused Harry to change the route he chose, and, in the end, found himself cornered in the corner of the fence that surrounded the school territory.

"Time to pay, freak!" The Dudley said as his group was slowly advancing towards the young Potter, their fists clenched and ready to beat some sense into the scrawny boy... Since Harry was watching the other boys, trying to seen when their attacks will come in hopes of dodging them, he didn't see that this little 'confrontation' now had a third side to it. The Dudley's gang didn't see that either, because _it_ approached them from behind...

Once two of the boys – Pierce and Gordon – suddenly were not there anymore, Harry had finally noticed that they weren't alone. But he kept his mouth shut about this: the unknown 'attacker' was on his side so far... Dennis joined his two friends among those temporary indisposed, while Dudley still didn't notice that something was wrong... He cocked his fist to smash that dirty annoying freak's face, noticing with satisfaction that the freak was scared, but a moment later he froze when he felt something cold and round put against the back of his head.

"Y'know I have little tolerance to the bastards like ya." A definitely female voice spoke from behind Dudley – but because of his cousin's size, Harry couldn't see his 'savior' well. "And I'm very tempted to teach ya a lesson with some lead to your head... But I doubt it'll help – ya don't seem to possess a brain to take my lesson in." This was accompanied by the girl pushing her gun against young Dursley's head in such a way that even he understood that it was better to do what the lady had to say... "Get lost." The 'lady' barked an order, sending Dudley fleeing the area...

Now young Harry could see his savior in all of her 'glory'. She was a teenage girl – around seventeen or eighteen if he were to guess – with slightly angular face, short spiky hair that seemed to be almost gray, and steel-gray eyes of someone who had seen their share of violence in life. She was wearing a gray jacket with a white hoodie under it, and green miniskirt that stopped an inch above her knees... Harry wasn't sure, but it looked like there were holsters for a guns strapped to her both legs under her skirt... Speaking of the guns... While, thanks to the _care_ of his relatives he was pretty sheltered from the world, even he knew that the gun in girl's hand was not something one could just buy.

"And you." The girl said, her accent (temporarily) gone, while returning the gun to its holster on her left leg, not caring that she was flashing quite a bit of her legs to anyone who would appreciate the 'show'. "You are coming with me." Harry nodded.

"Yes, ma'am." The girl shrugged and started walking out of the school territory, forcing the green-eyed boy to practically run to keep up with her... Soon they were sitting in a non-descriptive light-blue Volkswagen that was at least a couple of decades old.

"Name?" The girl asked.

"H-Harry... Harry Potter." Harry replied nervously, when he saw the girl getting something that looked like a briefcase from the back seat of the car. This briefcase, though, turned out to be a laptop – a rare thing, and more than little expensive too.

"Residence?" She asked again, while launching some database on the laptop. Judging by the emblem, it was one of those databases all governments had on their citizens. Who was this girl?

"Privet drive... number four." The little wizard (though, he didn't knew that he was one yet) answered, hoping beyond hope that he had done thing wrong beyond doing too good on his math test.

"...Little Whinging, Surrey." The girl finished, while typing the address into the search line. "You know, there are only three people registered there." She said, once the computer presented her with the results. "All three of them are Dursley."

"They... they are my aunt, uncle and cousin." Harry said as he read the names in the search results. The girl shrugged.

"Then we're going to pay'em a visit." She said, while exiting the program and putting the laptop into hibernation, before closing it – it once again looked like a briefcase.

* * *

Not ten minutes later the girl – Harry still didn't know her name – stopped her car in front of the Dursley's house. This was the first time Harry rode a car as his _relatives_ never allowed him into theirs... Once they both were out of the car, the girl started walking towards the Dursley's house's door, her hands in the pockets of her jacket. Not wanting to be left standing in the middle of the street like and idiot, Harry hurried after her, even though he definitely didn't want to be close his _relatives_' house right now. Then the girl knocked on the door.

"Who's there?" His aunt opened the door. "How can I help you, dear?" Then she noticed Harry, and her demeanor changed completely. "I'm not paying for whatever that freak did! Make him repair it!" The woman shouted, attracting attention of every other housewife within two blocks...

"If I ever had any doubts before, I don't have'em now." The girl replied in cold tone. "I'm taking Harry from ya. I know an abusive house when I see one, and I ain't goin' to let him suffer." Petunia exploded.

"You can't do that! The other freaks said that the boy is ours to use however we want to! You can't take him away from me, tart! They'll..." The horse-like woman was forced to shut up as she found a pistol aimed at her head.

"Ya just confessed that ya practice slavery. I can have ya and ya family in prison before the sun sets." The girl hissed. Somehow, Petunia Dursley was either far more stupid or far more brave than anyone had thought: she backtalked.

"You can't do that! Freaks said that..." The girl brought her gun closer to woman's forehead. "And who do you think you are to threaten me?" The girl looked straight into her eyes.

"Allow me to introduce myself: sergeant major Julianne Thomson, Security Service of Great Britain (MI5)" She said in a low hissing voice, while showing her ID and other credentials to the now very frightened woman. "Have ya changed your mind?" Julianne asked in a tone that implied that negative answer was not an option. Petunia nodded fearfully. "Then get all of Harry's things down'ere and we'll leave." Then she added in a low hissing that only Harry could hear. "Don't think that it'll save ya sorry ass. I'll have ya all in prison, _abusers_." Not a minute later Petunia returned with whatever things Harry had in his cupboard under the stairs. Julianne accepted those without a single word, and headed back to her car, Harry following her closely behind...

**~/ *** \~**

As Julianne was an agent of Military Intelligence, Section 5, she was privy to the existence of the magic as she had to work with their aurors once in a while. So she brought Harry down to the secret level, where one of the wizards had confirmed that the boy was indeed magical (and quite a famous person, along with being a sole heir to the Noble house). With that knowledge, she brought him to the magical section of the JIC central hospital then...

The healers quickly had compiled the list of traumas that Harry got from his _relatives_' abuse, and it was forwarded to the police station in Little Whinging, Surrey – those Dursley monsters won't have a chance to avoid prison now... While Julianne was ensuring that the abusers got what they deserved, the healers were making sure that the boy would not suffer from those traumas anymore and were cramming his various, and not always tasty, potions.

Finally, just a little before midnight, Julianne and Harry left the hospital (she was also carrying a big bag with several dozens vials of potions that were prescribed to the boy). And even though she knew that she was ill-suited to care for a child – not only because of her job – she still decided that she would let him live with her. Who knows, maybe he'll even help her find the love of her life...

**~/ *** \~**

Minerva McGonnagal stopped in front of the door with number '328' on it and looked at the piece of parchment in her hands. Yes, this was the apartment where one of the Hogwarts' new students lived: the student, whose guardian had asked her for some help with the shopping... Folding the parchment, she vanished it and ringed the bell. Since the door she stood in front of was really thick, she didn't even hear when someone had approached the said door from the other side, and was caught a bit by surprise, when the voice from the speaker asked who she was.

"This is professor McGonnagal from Hogwarts." She replied, showing her wand in front of the eyehole. The statics from the speaker stopped and a moment later she heard the door locks being opened. Finally the door opened and she found herself face to face with eleven years old boy. "Mr. Potter?" The witch asked in surprise, not expecting to find him here. Then she glanced at his forehead and got another surprise: the oh-so-famous scar was gone. No, it was still visible, but one needed to look closely to see it.

"Please, come in. I'll get ready to go to the Diagon alley." Harry said as he invited the transfiguration professor into the flat. Quite gasp from the witch told him that he had forgotten something important. Turning around, he quickly saw what that was: Julianne never was the one to keep their flat tidy and clean, so right now several pieces of her (and her current girlfriend's) garment, including underwear were lying in disarray on the sofa in the living room. "Oops, sorry about the mess. They had a ...celebration yesterday night and I didn't have a chance to clean it yet."

"I see..." Was all that McGonnagal said: apparently things like this were a normal occurrence here... Normally, she'd protest about a child, especially a boy, being raised by a lesbian (and her lover), but Harry here looked healthy and cared for... She wasn't sure that he'd be the same under Dursley's _care_... While she was still thinking about this all, Harry managed to change into his outdoor clothes.

"Let's go." He said.

* * *

**Adopt** this, anyone? just no yaoi/slash/BL, please.


	20. Harry Potter :: lord EvansBlack

**Harry Potter :: Lord Evans-Black or Yet another Different Boy-Who-Lived story**

* * *

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore appeared in the living room of Potters' cottage in the Godric Hollow in a burst of fire, holding on the tail feathers of _his_ phoenix. Why did the most powerful wizard in Great Britain use this particular kind of transportation? - well, five minutes ago one of his many monitoring devices gave him a signal that Voldemort had attacked one of the possible children of prophesy, and he was there to see the results of the said attack...

Even though he could clearly see that James, who was lying near the bottom of the stairs, and Lily – her body was in the doors of the nursery – were both alive, the ancient meddler didn't revive them just yet. Instead, he walked into the nursery. There were two cribs, where the Potter twin sons were lying, and then there was a small amount of ashes between the cribs, along with the black robes and a certain thirteen inches long wand that had belonged to Tom Riddle. It looked like one of the twins was indeed a child of prophesy and had vanquished the Dark Lord. But which one?

Edward, the younger twin, whose crib was to the right, was crying loudly, while a very noticeable cursed scar was bleeding on his forehead. Harry, on the other hand, looked like he was sleeping, and his cursed scar was somewhere near the top of his head, and was nowhere nearly as bad as his twin's was... And thus Albus Dumbledore came to a conclusion, that Edward was the one about whom the prophesy spoke: he was the chosen one! Now, what to do with the other boy?

Potters needed to concentrate their attention on Edward now that he was revealed to be the chosen one, so Harry will inevitably be pushed into the shadows. That, along with the fact he wouldn't be receiving the same kind of special training that his brother would, will almost surely turn him into the next Dark Lord. He, the great Albus Dumbledore couldn't let this happen: the reincarnation of Voldemort would be quite enough for the chosen one to deal with...

Another important issue, the chosen one was to be leading the forces of Light (under his guidance, of course), and to do that he needed money and status – but unless something is done, Harry would inherit both Potter lordship and Potter fortune.

The ancient wizard wasn't happy with the solution his mind came up with, but that was needed to be done in the name of the Greater Good! Placing a powerful charm to keep Harry sleeping, Dumbledore took him out of the crib and tasked his phoenix with bringing the boy to his office at Hogwarts. Once Harry was gone from the house he conjured something that looked like a lower half of child's body and a ball of red paint. A moment later the paint was all over the crib, thanks to a low-power _**reducto**_ curse.

Now that the preparations were finished, exited the nursery and enervated first James and then Lily. While the adults were recovering, he returned to the nursery and picked Edward into his arms, while using his wand to levitate 'Harry's body', wrapped in the 'bloodied' bedsheets.

"What happened there, James?" Lily asked as she sat up against the wall next to the door of the nursery. "Last thing I remember is Voldemort trying to get to our boys..." She tried to stand up and run into the nursery to check on them, but her body was not ready for that yet... That was the moment when the great Albus Dumbledore emerged from the room with Edward in his arms and something wrapped in the bloody sheets hovering in front of him.

"Let me explain you what happened there after Voldemort had knocked you unconscious." The ancient wizard said. Both adult Potters looked at him. "Once neither of you were an obstacle for him, the Dark Lord went to kill you children, hoping to fulfill the prophesy. He managed to kill young Harry, but something happened when turned his wand to Edward. I myself not sure what caused his curse to backfire, but his body now is mere ashes... It appears that young Edward is indeed the child that the prophesy spoke about." Dumbledore said... He let the parent cry over the loss of one of their sons, before he broke even worse news. "Unfortunately, I don't believe that whatever had happened tonight killed Voldemort. It only weakened him and banished his spirit from his body. What we must do to ensure that he will not have another chance at bringing Britain to its knees should be discussed at another time. You need time to mourn over your loss." With those words the ancient wizard gave Edward to his mother, before calling his phoenix and disappearing in a flash of fire...

* * *

Back in his office at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was preparing the runic array for the ritual that will ensure that Harry will not have a chance to foil his plans by inheriting anything from the Potter line. This ritual was very dark and forbidden, but he needed it for the Greater Good: he heeded Harry to cease being Potter...

Once he completed the array, he lay the young boy into the central ring and started chanting. The runes started glowing bloody-red and young Harry started screaming like he was placed under a hundred _**crucio**_ curses simultaneously. But no matter how it tore his heart apart to inflict such sufferings to a mere child, Dumbledore continued with the ritual... Half an hour later, the ritual was complete, and now no magical scan ever will be able to tell that Harry ever belonged to the Potter bloodline... Even his appearance changed: his hair turned lighter, ending dark-brown, and was now not as messy as it used to be. Harry's eyes remained vibrant forest-green, but his face no longer held any resemblance to that of his biological father's...

Sighing, Dumbledore picked Harry up and, once again using his phoenix to quickly cover great distances, flashed to a back alley near one of the orphanages in Manchester.

**~/ *** \~**

Eleven years old Harold Evans – Harry to those few whom he considered to be his friends – was in his room in the orphanage where he grew up, when an owl landed on his windowsill. That was more than a little strange as it was an hour after the sunrise, but mostly because there was a thick envelope attached to bird's leg. And with the way the owl was looking at him, the boy was sure that the said owl was here to deliver him the letter...

Shrugging, he got out of his chair and, opening the window, let the owl in. It let him to take the letter, but didn't flew away once he did. It was almost like the bird was waiting for him to write an answer... Shrugging again, Harry opened the letter. And froze as soon as his eyes landed on the first line. Either it was a bad joke, or he somehow was given a place in a school of witchcraft and wizardry... But if magic existed, it certainly explained some things about him, starting with his very body: he looked to be at least a couple years older than he really was, and he sometimes was able to adjust his appearance a bit (like his hair always being in order, even in the morning... or like his hair never growing longer than he though suited him...). And of course magic would be a fine explanation to some more strange things that happened around him, usually when he was angry or sad...

So despite often being told that magic went only as far as sleight of hand, Harry was ready to believe that witches and wizards that used wands or spent hours brewing various potions existed. Plus if this wasn't a joke, it would let him leave the orphanage – he didn't particularly like this place... So finding his pen, he quickly wrote and answer, asking about tuition and places where he could by the things needed for Hogwarts... Once he finished his response, he gave it to the owl, which accepted it, before flying out of the window, presumably to deliver his letter to someone at Hogwarts...

The next morning he got an answer to his letter. His tuition would be paid from a special fund for muggleborn and orphan students. He'll have to pay those money back later on, but the green-eyed boy was sure that he'll be able to do that. As for getting his things – he was sent an instruction on how to enter the Diagon alley (magical shopping district), and how to access the money he was given from the fund at Gringotts (goblin-ran wizarding bank), and this suited him just fine: he did things mostly on his own anyway...

* * *

On the next weekend, Harry traveled to London, using almost all of the money he had saved to do that. Finding 'the Leaky Cauldron' pub proved to be a bit difficult, thank to all of the charms it was hidden behind, but once he entered it, a very kind bartender opened the entrance into the Diagon alley for him. Once he was there, he made a beeline for Gringotts bank... Unfortunately, when he finally arrived there, every teller had quite a queue, so it'll be another half an hour before he'll be able to start his shopping...

"Good morning, master teller." Harry said. The goblin sneered at him.

"What do you want?" The creature asked.

"I was told that Hogwarts fund provided me with a vault, so that I can pay for my things." The young wizard said as he gave the goblin the second letter he had received from Hogwarts. The teller scanned the parchment.

"Everything seems to be in order." He said, before turning around and telling something to another, younger, goblin in a rapid gobbledegook. "Follow Rustfork. He'll lead you to Coppercutter, who will finish assigning the Hogwarts fund vault to you." Nodding, Harry followed Rustfork into the maze-like corridors of Gringotts... Soon the young wizard found himself in the office of a very imposing goblin (Coppercutter).

"I will be needing thirteen drops of your blood to finish the temporary transfer process and to forge your key. This blood will also be used to identify you, should something happen to the key." Judging by the way the goblin said that, losing the key was the worst idea... Nodding, Harry approached the stone basin that was covered with runes and picked the ritual knife that was lying next to it. Making a small cut on his finger, he let the required amount of blood to enter the basin... Since nothing of interest to him seemed to be happening, he placed the knife back onto the table and returned to his seat in front of Coppercutter. The said goblin was staring at the piece of parchment in front of him with an expression on his face that was definitely goblin's equivalent of 'surprise'.

"Everything alright, sir?" Harry asked.

"Mr. Evans." The goblin replied. "It appears that you have Black blood in you, even though the line was thought to die out when lord Orion Black died of old age seven years ago with his heir Sirius black being killed while on duty three years before that, and family magic refused to accept anyone we knew of as the new heir." Harry nodded dumbly, trying to process what he was told. "I'd like you to try Black's heir's ring. If it accepts you, then you'll get access to house Black's vaults and properties, whatever is left of them." Harry nodded again and Coppercutter asked his assistant to bring the ring. A couple of minutes later the assistant goblin returned with a small box of dark wood in which on red velvet the heir's ring lay. Coppercutted put on his dragon-hide gauntlets and handed the ting to Harry. "Try putting it on your left ring finger. If it accepts you, you'll be able to do that." The goblin said, before adding mentally: '_And if it doesn't, you'll spend several weeks in hospital, prying for death to stop your suffering._' Much to everyone's surprise, though, the ring accepted Harry.

"Wow." Was all that the boy could say.

"Congratulations, heir of the Ancient and Noble house Black." The goblin said. "Now that we've confirmed that you are the heir, we may as well see whether you're the lord already or not. Because of the house's status as Ancient, the heir may ascend into the lordship at eleven. No rights to vote in Wizengamot – magical parliament – personally, until you are twenty one, though."

"Well, let's try that." Harry said. He really wasn't sure what to think of this all anymore, so he decided that following what Coppercutter says was as good an idea as any... Another five minutes later, lord Black's ring was brought to the office, and the green-eyed wizard tried it on as well. The ring was reluctant for several seconds, before allowing him to slip it on his finger, where it replaced heir's ring.

"Congratulations, lord Black." Coppercutter said. "I'll have you escorted to your estate manager now." Then, after a small pause he added. "Your Hogwarts fund vault will be annulled." Harry merely shrugged, too overwhelmed by the today's events to think what would he do, should the house Black be broke...

he wasn't left without any money though: house Black still had about seventy thousands galleons in the vaults – more than enough to see him through his schooling – as well as a house at Grimmaulds place, where harry planned to move in as soon as possible: orphanage wasn't the place where he wanted to return...

**~/ *** \~**

In Wiltshire, a certain blond witch, who was in the manor's library at the time, suddenly felt a shiver, and not an unpleasant one, run through her spine. Besides her, her thirteen years old daughter Lyra (almost carbon copy of her mother, but with lighter-blond hair) seemed to have experienced the same. This could mean only one thing: new lord Black was chosen by the family magic.

In another part of England in house that looked almost like a normal muggle house, another pair of witches, too a mother and her daughter, felt the same. While they both were cast of the family, magic still recognized both as descendants of the house Black and 'decided' to inform them about their new lord appearing. But unlike the previous pair, these two witches decided to ignore the 'message' – after all, there were no descent Blacks not blasted off the family tree left, right?

Finally, somewhere deep in the cold cells of the Azkaban prison, a certain psycho witch got the magical 'message' about the new lord Black appearing. But this sensation never was registered by the said witch as her mind was being broken down by the daily visit of dementors to her cell.

**~/ *** \~**

It took Harry some time to convince the creature – house elf named Kreacher – that he was the new owner of #12 Grimmaulds place, and that the house needed some thorough cleaning, but in the end, three days later, the house was more or less inhabitable once again... Harry was reading his Potions textbook while lying on the bed in his room, when an owl arrived, caring a note attached to its leg. Even though it was still before sunset, the young boy was not surprised much by this – magical world seemed to be quite illogical... Shrugging, the young wizard took the note from the owl and read it.

It appeared that some witch – Narcissa – who was a daughter of the Ancient and Noble house Black wanted to meet with him for some ...private business. Apparently, she was not exactly satisfied with the man she was contracted to, and wanted him to dissolve their marriage, so that she could return to being ms. Black. Well, Harry decided, he was lord Black and looking after the members of his family was his duty, so meeting with Narcissa was something he should do.

He quickly wrote the reply, stating that he will meet with her at Gringotts the next Saturday, and gave the note to the owl to deliver it to Narcissa...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry, still feeling a bit out of his place in the role of the lord Black, stepped into the Gringotts lobby. Much to his surprise, there was goblin waiting for him there to escort him to the meeting room where he was to meet with Narcissa – he was under the impression that goblins never wasted their time waiting for someone.

Anyway, the goblin there escorted him into one of the many meeting rooms within Gringotts building. Not surprisingly, the witch wasn't there yet: after all in was fashionable to be late, not early... Fifteen minutes later, and just on the time they had agreed on, Narcissa arrived to the meeting room, with her daughter accompanying her.

"Good morning, my lord. As you know, I'm Narcissa Malfoy nee Black, and this is my daughter Lyra." The older witch said, while the younger one just smiled politely, though one observant enough could see her casting glances at the boy every now and then.

"Charmed." Was Harry's reply as he was trying to remember every little bit of information about etiquette that he had ever learned. Apparently, he was doing alright so far.

"Let's get to our business then." Narcissa said. "Like I wrote in that letter I've sent you earlier this week, I wish for my marriage to be dissolved: it didn't turn out to be as either I myself or the previous lord Black had envisioned it. I wish to return to the house Black, along with my daughter. My son, unfortunately, isn't Black enough for this."

"I see..." The green-eyed wizard drowned out. "But you should know better than me that dissolving a marriage by contract is not easy, for the contract must be violated in the most dire way." No, he really wanted to help his family, especially since they were nice enough – growing up in the orphanage had him learn how to judge someone's character quickly and accurately – but he also knew that not everything you wanted was possible.

"Indeed, but I believe such violation happened." The older witch said, before producing 'her' copy of the marriage contract. "It is stated that my husband has to be strong and he must have no criminal record. Either one of those conditions wasn't met." Harry raised an eyebrow. "My husband was one of the followers of the last Dark Lord – Voldemort – but claimed that he was controlled via _**imperious**_ curse. But as he was the follower for at least six years, it either he is so weak that he couldn't regain his free will even partially over such a long period of time, or he was a willing follower of the terrorist." Even though Narcissa found some of the ideas of the Dark Lord to be good, the same could not be said about his methods...

"Yes, that can be counted as such violation." Harry said. "But... While the house at Grimmaulds place is still intact, there too little money left to support the three of us for the next several year – not with the level of life you two are used to."

"Dissolving the marriage will return my dowry to the Black vaults – that would be about sixty thousands galleons – plus all of my personal things and house elf Trinky will come with me... With sufficiently good resource management, it will be possible to double the Black fortune by the time you finish Hogwarts." The older witch replied. After thinking about this for a minute, Harry made his decision.

"Very well, I shall, as the current lord of Ancient and Noble house Black, annul your marriage, but it will take some time to process the documents..." Muggle world was full of bureaucrats, and Harry had no reason to believe that magical world would be any different. "Be ready to move in to Grimmaulds place by the next Saturnday." Narcissa and then Lyra nodded.

"Thank you, my lord." The older witch said, before the two of them stood up and bowed, before leaving the meeting room.

**~/ *** \~**

It was September the first, and Harry was boarding Hogwarts express, along with Lyra. The young witch was a bit uneasy that her mother wasn't there to see them off – Narcissa, acting as the proxy for the lord Black, was busy at the Ministry this morning, unfortunately – but being next the to one of her friends and her lord made her so much more sure of herself... True, they were still getting to know each other, but Lyra had warmed more than quite a bit towards Harry, and the boy wasn't ignorant of this, especially not after he had overheard Narcissa making plans to marry them to each other when she thought he was asleep...

Harry wasn't given a chance to ponder about the blond witch sitting across the compartment from him as two girls in Slytherin robes joined them and started asking Lyra questions about her summer, while sharing the most piquant details about their, much to the embarrassment of the young wizard. In the end, he decided to have a walk and see if he could befriend some 'firsties'...

* * *

Aside from having less than pleasant chat with the wizarding celebrity Edward Potter (who for some reason thought that Harry was a dark wizard and needed to be put down like a rabid dog) and even less pleasant conversation with blond boy named Draco Malfoy (who thought that Harry had stolen his mother and _her money_ from him), the walk was rather nice for the green-eyed wizard.

Eventually they arrived to Hogsmeade station and Lyra gave him a hug – though she made sure that no one undesired had seen this – and went with the rest of the upper years to the carriages, while Harry along with the rest of 'firsties' was guided to the small fleet of boats by a giant man...

They arrived to Hogwarts without any accidents (aside from Neville Longbottom losing his toad. Again), and after a small wait, the deputy headmistress invited them to the Great hall for the sorting ceremony. The had sang its song, and the sorting began... Abbot Hannah, a bit shy blond girl Harry had met on the train, joined the ranks Hufflepuff. Her best friend friend Susan Bones joined her there not a minute later... Several students later, professor McGonnagal reached the letter 'E'. Entwhistle Kevin became a Ravenclaw. Then it was Harry turn to be sorted...

"Evans-Black, Harold." The deputy headmistress announced, causing the students who had deep connections within magical world to start whispering: it was thought that the Black line had died out, after all... Ignoring them all, Harry sat on the stool and placed the hat on his head.

'_You desire to live your own life._' It said in his mind. '_I know the perfect place for you._' "Slytherin!" It shouted, causing the entire green and silver table and several other students to clap politely. Taking the hat off his head and placing it onto the stool, Harry headed to the Slytherin table. With a small shrug he chose to sit next to Lyra and event though some of the older students seemed to have some kind of a problem with this, they (wisely) kept their thoughts to themselves...

As he was waiting for the sorting to finish and for the feast to begin, the green-eyed wizard saw Lyra already writing Narcissa a message, most likely to tell the witch that he was sorted into the proper house. Deciding to ignore that as one of those things that were 'normal' for the magical world, Harry decided to pay it little mind, instead concentrating on how he should act around his classmates to project the image befitting his and his house's status... He was brought out of his musings by a playful poke under his ribs, courtesy of Lyra, who couldn't help but dissolve into a small fit of giggles, upon seeing his face.

"You should eat, my lord." She said, while trying to keep her face straight. "Or do you wish for you faithful mistress to feed you?" The glare she received for an answer caused the blond witch to start giggling again... Harry just sighed as he started piling food onto his plate: sometimes this girl was intolerable. Pretty and smart but intolerable...

* * *

**Story stub adoption**:  
You are more than welcome to write your own story based on this stub (or its parts). The rules will be the following:  
* No slash. Special points if Harry is paired with one of the following girls: Lyra, Su Li, Daphne, Astoria, Padma, Susan (Narcissa can be used as well). OC that are not Mary Sue are welcome. Three- and moresomes while possible, are not exactly desired.  
* Either Slytherin or Ravenclaw (but always intelligent and cunning, and somewhat political) Harry.  
* You may bash Dumbledore and Potters.  
* Harry does not actively participate in 'canon' events. At least for the first year.  
* Harry must punch Edward clean in the nose at least once. (*requested* by **Reishin Amara**)  
* Have fun!


	21. Naruto :: alternative from the day one

**Naruto :: Alternative from the day one**

* * *

**Warnings: **not good Sandaime, bad Konoha, child neglect, etc. ...

* * *

"**Grrrhhh!**" The great Kyuubi no Yoko roared angrily as the dark half of its soul, along with the half of its power, was ripped off it by the Death god, only to be sealed in that damned blond ningen's body.

'_My body's gone numb... What a heavy chakra..._' Yondaime Hokage thought as the first part of his plan was completed. Now he needed to seal the rest of the beast into Naruto. "Now for the eight trigrams seal..." The blond man said to himself as he summoned the ceremonial throne for the sealing... Unfortunately for him this was where the things stopped going according to his plans, as, even as weakened as it was, the Kyuubi managed to brake free of the chakra chains Kushina was using to keep it in place.

Using its freedom, the nine-tailed demon tried to kill the damn blond ningen (the older one), before he could do something else... To bad the redhead it was sealed in previously managed to move and took the hit instead. But the blond Hokage continued with the ritual and had already placed the formula for the seal on his son's stomach.

"Minato..." Kushina whispered, before coughing some blood. "I'm going to die anyway..." Indeed, with the huge hole in her stomach, thanks to the Kyuubi's claw, there was no chance that she will live even five more minutes... "Seal the rest of it back into me..." She coughed more blood. "With no Kyuubi, that man's... plans will be ruined, and Naru-chan... will be able to live... a normal life..."

Shinigami, that was following Minato's mental orders, stopped before it completed the transition of the rest of the beast's soul and yoki into the child, though its hand had partially entered the boy's body. Instead, the Death God none too gently pushed the 'good' half of the Kyuubi into Kushina's still living body. The stress of having the bijuu being put back into her was too much for the red-haired kunoichi, though, and she died a second after the seal was complete, sending both of their souls away from the world of living...

"We are done here..." Minato whispered, before his own soul, along with the 'dark' half of the Kyuubi that he had sealed into himself earlier, was collected by the Death God...

Now that the barrier that kept them away had collapsed, the Konoha shinobi entered the area, wanting to see that their Hokage was alright... They didn't know that the jutsu he had used was a self-sacrificial one. Sarutobi Hiruzen, though, knew that...

"Your will of fire was very strong indeed, Minato." The Third Hokage said quietly, as he approached the ceremonial throne where now orphaned Naruto lay, with the fresh seal painted on his stomach. Picking the young boy, Sarutobi ordered the shinobi to take care of their dead leader and his wife, while he made sure that Naruto's seal was strong – not being able to see the Shinigami, Sarutobi didn't knew that the the Kyuubi, in the end, wasn't sealed in the boy...

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning pretty much everyone in Konoha that wasn't in hospital (or whatever was left of it after the Kyuubi's rampage through the village) assembled in front of the Hokage tower: the reinstalled Third Hokage had an important information for them... Finally, Sarutobi, once again wearing his Kage robes, appeared in front of the crowd with Naruto in his arms.

"Dear citizens of Konohagakure no Sato..." The elderly man began his speech. "Yesterday the great disaster befell our village, as the great demon, the Kyuubi no Yoko, decided to attack us. Many brave shinobi died yesterday to protect the village and their loved ones, and our beloved Yondaime Hokage was among them. Minato-dono, though, managed to stop the beast and seal it away into young Naruto there." Sarutobi raised the boy in his arms for everyone to see. "This boy is a hero like our late Yondaime, for he is keeping the beast at bay, protecting us from it." ...Unfortunately, not many saw the things the way Hiruzen wanted them to see.

"Kill the demon!" Someone shouted, and many cries to kill the demon boy were now heard from the crowd. Some brave ones even tried to kill the boy by throwing kunai and shuriken at him...

"**Be quiet!**" Sandaime Hokage roared, unleashing killing intent so powerful that even the strongest jounin and ANBU wanted to flee from the man. "Young Naruto here is not the demon that is sealed in him, nor he will be punished in any for for something his tenant did." The people, consumed by their grief, didn't want to listen, though, as they still were demanding the death of the 'Kyuubi brat'... In the end, when everything else failed, Sarutobi had to use his authority to install several laws that hopefully will protect Naruto...

**~/ *** \~**

Naruto's life was not an easy one. Not with the entire village, save for the select few, hating his guts with ungodly passion for the reason unknown... For the first two years of his life he lived in the hospital, constantly guarded by a platoon of ANBU – not that the masked ninjas were of much protection, as there still were at least fifty assassination attempts.

Once he was two years old, Sarutobi decided that the seal was strong enough, and it was safe to send young Naruto to the orphanage... Too bad, the matron saw the boy as the Kyuubi incarnate, and only pure luck was keeping the young Uzumaki alive with all those attempts to kill him she made – from 'forgetting' his outside in the middle of the winter to outright trying to burn him alive... In other words, the three years Naruto had spent in the orphanage was a pure hell for the boy, and no matter what he did, he couldn't find out what he did to make everyone hate him so much...

For his fifth birthday, the Third Hokage gave Naruto his own apartment in the section of the village that was mostly occupied by shinobi – if he were to be place in the civilian sector, the boy would be murdered within an hour... Still, the assassination attempts didn't stop. Actually, their number had only increased, but as he wasn't confined to the orphanage, Naruto had better chances to run away and hide, if someone came with the intent of offing him... Still, as many of his would-be assassins were shinobi, the five years old blond had little to no chance of hiding from them... So tonight he was once again delivered to the hospital by an ANBU operative...

"How's he?" Sarutobi asked the doctor – one of the few here, who didn't see the boy as the demon. The doctor shook his head.

"I will not lie to you, Hokage-sama. It's a miracle that he is still alive... If he wasn't an Uzumaki, he'd be six feet under right now.. And what is worse, as usual, his tenant is doing nothing at all to save him... We can't detect even the faintest traces of its yoki in Naruto's chakra." The Third Hokage nodded with a sigh. It appeared that Minato's seal was too good, if that was even possible. He needed to do something, or one of these days Naruto's Uzumaki blood will not be enough to keep the boy alive... Damn those ignorant villagers that couldn't see the scroll from the kunai sealed in it.

"I see..." The 'professor' said with another sigh. "Please do everything you can to heal Naruto." The doctor bowed.

"Of course, Hokage-sama. We will do what we can." The medic bowed and started walking back to the room where the young Uzumaki was treated from his wounds.

**~/ *** \~**

By the time Naruto was seven, the villagers' hate towards him lessened a bit, and now they were mostly just glaring at him and calling him names and overcharging him for anything he bought, and forbidding their children from being his friends, instead of physically attacking him. Of course, every now and then someone tried to stab him in the back with a rusty knife or to set him on fire with a fire jutsu...

Also, now Naruto was going to shinobi academy, but, unlike his classmates, the blond boy didn't want to be a Konoha shinobi. He was going to the academy to acquire the skills he'd need to survive outside the village walls – he had decided long ago that when he would be ready, he'll run away from Konoha...

* * *

It was another two years, before Naruto deemed himself ready to leave the Hidden Leaf village. He now had some basic ninja tools – they were of a bad quality, but that still was better than nothing at all. He also now knew how to survive in the wilderness, and how to protect himself against an untrained opponent...

So, one night, he collected everything he owned – not much there – and hid himself in one of the carts of a caravan that was heading to some other county... Thankfully for him, the guards at the gates didn't check the caravan for chakra signatures, or he would have been discovered: Naruto had very large chakra reserves for his age... And once the caravan was far enough from Konoha, the blond Uzumaki sneaked away and started traveling on his own, following one simple rule: no matter where he went, he was getting further away from the Hidden Leaf...

* * *

It was roughly the end of the second month Naruto was alone in the wilderness, and he was slowly making his way through the forests of the Tea county... Suddenly, he heard something behind him in the bushes. Not wanting to become some predator's dinner, the young boy ran. Of course, a bear followed him, but the blond was much more agile than the beast and was successfully avoiding the bear's attempts to throw him down on the ground...

But the luck wasn't entirely on his side, though, as he soon found himself in front of the river that he could cross only by a thin tree that fell across the comb the river ran through... And as he was doing that, his foot slipped on the moss and he fell into the cold water, hitting his head hard against the stones on the river bed in the process...

**~/ *** \~**

Naruto woke up an undetermined amount of time later, lying on the riverside not far from a 'small' waterfall. He was really cold, he was very hungry and his head hurt so much. But his desire to live was as strong as ever, so he pulled himself out of the water, and somehow made his way into the cave behind the waterfall... Removing his clothes – so that he wouldn't freeze to death during the night that would fall soon – Naruto ate the last stale bread he had on him, before lying down on the ground, hoping that his head will be better once he woke up.

Unbeknownst to him, his entering the cave woke something up. Something big and incredibly powerful that slept in this cave for centuries. This something, of course, left it lair in the depths of the cave to investigate what had woken it up...

* * *

When Naruto woke up the next morning, his first thought was that he had hit his head too hard and was hallucinating now. As it turned out, that wasn't the case here, and there indeed was a naked woman sitting on the rock a couple of feet away from him.

Even though he was only nine and too young to truly appreciate the sight, he still could tell that the woman was beautiful, despite her strange, somehow inhuman, appearance. She was of an average height, about 5'5'', and had a slender body with perfectly sized for her C-cup breasts. Her skin was smooth and really pale, appearing to be almost white, while her nipples were very pale pink. Her knee-long hair was greenish-gray and tangled, like she just woke up from a restless sleep... What made Naruto slightly uneasy about her, aside from her mysteriously appearing there, were her eyes: they were serpentine: yellow-golden with a slitted pupils.

"Who are you, and what are you doing this close to my lair?" The woman asked bluntly in a slightly hissing voice... for a moment the blond even thought that her tongue was forked, like it belonged to a snake.

"M-my name i-is Naruto U-uzumaki." The blond replied, stuttering a bit. "A-and I just n-needed a place t-to spend the n-night." He made a small pause, before adding: "I'll leave n-now." The mysterious woman, though, was having none of it as she shook her head.

"Uzumaki you say?" She asked. "Last time I heard that name, they were a small family that traveled alongside with the heir of Rikkudou Sennin." Then her eyes landed on his stomach. "And you are marked by Shinigami-chan?" Naruto stared at the woman in shock: he had heard the myths about the Sage of Six Paths, but this woman was saying that she was alive back then? That and the way she just called the Death God using the '-chan' honorific... Who was she? Naruto tried to sit up (and prepare to escape from this woman), but she noticed that and, appearing right next to him, pushed him back into lying position with her single finger. "Rest, human, you need to heal your wounds, before you can go." And then she added quietly, but he still heard her perfectly: "Not that I'll letting you..." Already knowing that his life was now in her hands, Naruto submitted.

"Just one question: who would you be?" The woman narrowed her eyed for a moment, but then relaxed as she understood that the boy in front of her really didn't knew who, or better yet, what she was.

"I had many names, young Uzumaki... I myself like the name Miyoko... But you most likely you know me as Hachibi no Hachimata or, maybe, as Yamato no Orochi." Naruto fainted as soon as his brain finally processed this information and he finally understood who this woman was: a demon older than the bijuu...

* * *

**Stub adoption**:  
* You can adopt either the whole stub, or its part.  
* If Naruto runs away from Konoha, he should _**NEVER**_ willingly return there (other than for its destruction)  
* If Naruto meets Miyoko, she should become his mentor and (a bit later) his mate. Lemons are encouraged.  
* Naruto must be much darker than canon one, and he must not forgive easily if at all. He may be evil.  
* No yaoi pairings for Naruto in any case.  
* No pairings with Konoha girls for Naruto in any case (even if you have him stay at Konoha, he should end with a kunoichi from a different village).  
* Have fun.


	22. Naruto & BC & SS xover :: black spear

**Naruto & (minor) Black cat & (very minor) "School shock" crossover :: Black spear**

* * *

Naruto landed on the ground of the clearing where Mizuki-sensei said to meet him. Now he had to learn a jutsu from a scroll he had borrowed from Hokage's library and he would finally be a genin! Placing the giant scroll on the grassy ground, the blond boy unrolled it.

"Let's see..." Completely skipping the introduction written there, the young boy red the first jutsu described in the scroll. "Shadow clone... Damn, I'm bad with clones... Let's see what's next..." Since there was a lot of info about the **kage bunshin no jutsu**, Naruto had to unroll quite a bit of the Forbidden scroll, before he reached the next jutsu described there. Unfortunately, this one too seemed to be dealing with cloning, so the Kyuubi jinchuuriki skipped it as well. The third jutsu he found was a powerful medical technique added there by someone named Tsunade... Since he was healing extremely fast without the help of any jutsu, Naruto skipped this one as well.

After this one, there was a variety of complex fuuinjutsu, all of them being to difficult for the blond to choose them. After that there was another group of cloning techniques – elemental this time – so the blond soon-to-be ninja continued looking through the scroll. Some more jutsu were found to be not appealing by Naruto and were skipped as well. Finally, there was something that caught blond's eye. It wasn't a jutsu, but instead a sealed weapon. Deciding that anything in the scroll was powerful (even if many things weren't what he wanted), Naruto tried to get this weapon out of the scroll, but simply pushing chakra into the seal – like they were taught to activate explosive tags – didn't work.

"Damn!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki swore, and decided to continue looking for a jutsu he would like. But since the scroll was now unrolled all the way to the hut's wall, the blond had to move it first, and in doing so he made a mistake of dragging his finger along the edge of the razor-thin rice paper the scroll was made from. This caused a small cut appear, making the young boy even angrier. "Stupid useless scroll!" Being angry as he was, Naruto palmed the scroll, and the drop of blood from the cut on his finger accidentally landed on the seal activating it. "Oh?" The blond ninja in training said dumbly, withdrawing his hand from the glowing seal.

A moment later the seal stopped glowing, and there was an explosion of white smoke... When the smoke dissipated, there was a black and gold poleaxe- or maybe spear-like weapon lying there. The shaft was black in color and was about six feet long; on both ends it had golden balls. To one of these balls, an ornate golden bracing with a big red crystal in it was connected. In turn, there was a black singe-edged blade coming out of the bracing. This blade had two protrusions, one near the lower point of connecting with the bracing, and one near the upper. Finally, there was a bit rudely scratched number 'II' just over the lower protrusion.

Naruto cautiously touched the weapon. It showed no hostility in response, so he picked it up. Surprisingly, it felt not as heavy as it appeared, though, it still wasn't feather-light. Doing a test swing, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was surprised and delighted to see that it cut through a tree like a hot knife through butter.

"Cool!" The blond exclaimed. Then he looked up at the sky – it appeared that he had some time before Mizuki-sensei would arrive to graduate him, so he could try to learn another jutsu from the scroll. If he could find one that would be to his liking... But as he looked back at the Forbidden scroll, he noticed a smaller scroll lying what should have been next to the spear he unsealed. Deciding to see what was in the smaller scroll, Naruto picked it up and opened it, reading the contents.

_Greeting, the next wielder of the Gungnir spear. Even though this is not the spear of the Norse god Odin, it is still a powerful weapon, crafted by the masters of the handicraft from the Orichalcum metal. This makes the Gungnir nigh indestructible, as only extreme temperatures, hardest minerals and strongest acids are able to leave even a mark on the spear's blade. As it was found by me, Belze Rochefort, the first wielder of this weapon, one can also channel his chi through the Gungnir to further amplify its deadliness._  
_ I hope that you are the honorable man, my successor, as this weapon was created to protect the peace, not to cause the wars and mindless slaughter, but seeing that I'm not there in person to see what you are, I can only hope that your path in this world is an honorable one..._  
_ Along with the Gungnir I entrust you with the list of techniques I had developed to be used with it. Use them well, use them to protect the peace, to protect those you fight for._

Following this short message, there was a drawing of a light-haired man with the pear performing various attack and defenses. This man had long, blonde hair that he wears straight back down his shoulders minus the several strands that stick up and the ones over his face. He was wearing dark and long suit jacket with light, most likely golden, shoulder pads, dark pants and slightly lighter undershirt with a dark tie. And, damn, this man looked cool, Naruto decided. With a couple of adjustments, he could even adopt this man's looks...

As learning these katas would undoubtedly take more time than he had before Mizuki-sensei would get there, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki decided that he should look for a cool jutsu in the Forbidden scroll instead. So the blond returned to the scroll and continued looking through it... There were some more powerful fuuinjutsu techniques that were entirely too difficult for him to learn – though learning how to seal things into the scrolls would be a good thing to do, seeing that the Gungnir wasn't a small weapon after all...

Finally, Naruto reached a section of wind element ninjutsu, some of which, the blond decided, were pretty cool. One of those was **fuuton: shinkuuha**, which created a powerful cutting wind blade, while the other two were **fuuton: atsugai** and **fuuton: shinkuu gyoku**, which, both, created explosive balls of compressed air to be fired at an enemy... And all three jutsu should work fine with the spear being a medium for the attack.

Knowing that he wouldn't have another chance to look at these jutsu for a lo-o-ong time, Naruto decided to copy them down now and study them later. He also copied down **fuuton: shinkuu renpa** and **fuuton shinkuu taigyoku** techniques as well as those seemed to be useful as well, even if they seemed to be not suited for being channeled through a weapon...

Once he had copied the jutsu down for a later study, and rolled the Forbidden scroll back up, the blond youth picked **fuuton: shinkuuha** to learn right now. While it required some specific chakra manipulation the Kyuubi jinchuuriki didn't knew, he still should be able to do it, even though not as powerful as it was supposed to be. So the blond shinobi started training...

* * *

A little more than an hour later, Naruto managed to successfully launch a cutting wind wave from his mouth. The said wind wave left a good cut on the trees across the clearing, showing clearly that it was still powerful and deadly. The blond repeated the jutsu twice, both times producing the intended result... Deciding that he should rest now a bit before the demonstration for Mizuki-sensei, the blond ninja sat against the hut's wall – the Forbidden scroll next to him – and relaxed, though forcing himself not to fall asleep as he didn't want to miss his sensei's arrival.

"Are you, here, Naruto?" Mizuki asked as he entered the clearing, wearing the chuunin battle gear, complete with his personal weapons – two big fuuma shuriken – on his back.

"Hai, sensei!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki replied. "And I managed to learn a jutsu from it. Will you pass me now?" The white-haired chuunin gave him a predatory look.

"Give me the scroll, brat." He ordered. Naruto just stared at him. "Give me the scroll. We don't want it to be stained with blood." Mizuki repeated. The blond brat continued looking at him. "Give me the scroll, damn it, so that I can kill you and leave this pathetic village!" The chuunin yelled. Naruto's eyes widened.

"Oh, did you really think that I would pass a demon like you?" The older ninja said mockingly. "Yeah, that's right! You're a demon! That's the reason why everyone, even your precious Iruka and Hokage, hate you! You're the Kyuubi!" Seeing that the brat was yet to let the scroll go, Mizuki decided to take a risk of staining the precious scroll with the dirty blood of the demon, and threw a kunai at its head.

"!" Naruto, though, snapped out of his shock just in time to dodge the projectile. "You are wrong! They don't hate me! They don't!" He yelled in response.

"And I ain't the Kyuubi, teme!" The white-haired traitorous chuunin stared at him: the brat had the will entirely too strong for his tastes. "And since you turned out to be a traitor, I, as a loyal ninja of Konoha, should eliminate you!" Mizuki laughed.

"You think you can stop me? The demon scum like you wouldn't be able to even scratch me!" Suddenly Naruto moved, and a black and gold spear was thrown at the white-haired traitor. But Mizuki wasn't chuunin for nothing, so he sidestepped the attack with little difficulty. "Ha! See that, Kyuubi brat, you can't hurt me!" Then he looked closer to the spear that was now imbedded for a good ten inches into a tree behind him. "Hm... That weapon looks valuable. I can sell it from some extra ryo after I-..." He wasn't allowed to continued gloating as Naruto sent a wind blade at him:

"**Fuuton: shinkuuha!**" This time Mizuki didn't have enough time to dodge, and the jutsu left a bleeding cut on his left shoulder.

"Fuck you, brat!" The white-haired traitor shouted angrily. "I was going to kill quickly, but I've changed my mind: you will die a slow and painful death a demon like you deserves!" ...With those words he threw one of his giant shuriken at Naruto... Out of nowhere a kunai appeared, colliding with the bigger weapon and changing its trajectory just enough for the Kyuubi jinchuuriki to dodge it... Mizuki looked in direction the kunai came from. "You can come out, Iruka. I know you are here." Indeed, the scarred chuunin jumped from the trees, landing in front of Naruto in defensive position, while glaring at the traitor.

"Naruto, he is out of your league." Iruka said, while doing some slow one-handed hand seals with his left hand. "I will fight him from now on."

"You? Fight me?" Mizuki laughed. "You grew delusional while you were teaching brats in the academy. Can't you see that there is the Kyuubi behind you? The very same beast that killed your parents, Iruka. Why are you protecting the demon?"

"You're right, the Kyuubi indeed killed my parent and many other good ninja of my village... But Naruto isn't the nine-tailed beast. He is a human, a boy who tried his hardest to be the best shinobi he can." The said blond wanted to beam with happiness from being acknowledged, but his attention was on Iruka's right hand and the message the academy instructor was trying to send to him: "_Move. Attack him from behind. I'll distract him._" Nodding, Naruto started to slowly move towards the shadows he could disappear into...

"Even if you say so, Iruka, do you really think you can fight me? You're weak: you never went on real missions, preferring to stay in the village and teach brats as soon as you achieved your rank. You have no chance to defeat me!" The white-haired chuunin mocked.

"We shall see, traitor. **Doton: ganchuusou!**" The scarred academy instructor unleashed a jutsu he was preparing for some time now. But Mizuki dodged it with little difficulty. "**Katon: housenka!**" Iruka blew a dozen of small fireballs, but they too were evaded.

"Is that all you can do? You are weaker that I thought." The white-haired traitor taunted as he caught a kunai thrown at him, and sent it flying back, forcing Iruka to dodge the projectile. "How about I show you how real ninja work? **Magen: narakumi no jutsu!**" While normally this illusion wasn't that good, the overpowered version Mizuki used was pretty hard to dispel and had much greater effect on the target. The traitor smirked seeing his opponent fall to his knees. "The Kyuubi brat seems to be gone... Oh well, the scroll is still here. That's all I need." The white-haired chuunin observed as he noticed Naruto gone. "Now, Iruka, let's put you out of your misery." He said, drawing a kunai of his own, as he advanced towards the downed scarred chuunin. Soon he was standing over Iruka, ready to kill him... Shaking his head at the thought that he wouldn't be able to kill the demon brat as well, Mizuki swung his hand, going to cut the other chuunin's head off, but suddenly his body froze... The last thing he saw was the reason for this: the black blade of that spear sticking out of his chest...

"I will not let you harm Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said entirely too loudly for the current situation, before ripping his spear out of the traitor's now dead body, causing it to fall backwards.

"Thank you, Naruto." Iruka said, as he stood up. "And sorry, but I still have to bring you in front of the Hokage."

**~/ *** \~**

Cursing the evil entity that had invented this diabolic device, Naruto threw a kunai he kept under his pillow into the ringing alarm clock, effectively shutting it up. Opening his eyes, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki looked at the calendar on the wall: today was one week since the graduation and the day when the new genin were assigned to their first teams... Shaking his head to fight off the desire to lay back and continue sleeping, the young blond got out of his bed and started getting ready for the day, after all today he would meet his jounin-sensei.

Yes, while Naruto had failed the graduation exam, the events of the following evening had Hokage-jiji step in and (finally) make him a genin of Konohagakure no Sato – even if the blond youth still couldn't perform simplest academy clone technique, he was still a good fighter in the making and denying him advance into the shinobi ranks would be a mistake... Hell, he even got paid an equivalent of a B-rank mission payment for stopping Mizuki-teme!

Zipping his orange jumpsuit, Naruto checked the seal with the Gungnir on his right palm – Hokage had shown him how to seal things away after he made him a genin – and once he was satisfied that his new spear was sealed like it was supposed to be, the blond fastened a belt around his waist and attached two knife-like daggers to it: these two were his secondary weapons to be used in narrow corridors and the likes, or when he didn't feel like unsealing the Gungnir. [see page 71 of 14th chapter of "_**School shock**_" manga for the image of the knives]

Looking in the dirty mirror he had in his living room, Naruto smiled – he looked so much more like a serious ninja now, though he would have to change his clothes for something else later. Maybe he should imitate Belze's style? Shaking his head again, the young jinchuuriki left his small apartment and headed to the ninja academy...

* * *

Despite having the alarm clock to wake him up, Naruto arrived to the academy pretty late, with barely ten minutes to spare, and as soon he entered the classroom, he got attention of almost everyone present there (Sasuke Uchiha paid no attention to this and continued brooding).

"What are you doing here, Naruto? Only those who graduated are supposed to be here!" Inuzuka Kiba, otherwise known as the 'dog boy' or 'dog breath' asked loudly, his finger pointing at the blond in front of him. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki took up a mocking thinking pose... After several seconds of 'thinking', he replied.

"Hey, if you can't see the hitai-ate on my forehead, you should really go see an optometrist, dog breath!" Kiba didn't seem to be convinced that the class' deadlast was now a ninja as well.

"I can see it!" He yelled in response. "And I'm going to report you to the Hokage for stealing shinobi stuff! Let's see how you will extricate yourself from this!" Several of the graduates nodded in agreement with the Inuzuka heir, as they too didn't believe that blond youth was promoted to genin... Seeing that the situation was quickly getting out of control, Iruka decided to step in.

"Actually, Naruto here indeed was made a genin by Hokage-sama himself." The scarred chuunin said, getting attention of his students. "And, please, behave yourselves at least today – this is your last day in the academy after all."

"See!" Naruto added. "I'm so awesome that Hokage-jiji couldn't help but make me a ninja!" He exclaimed. ...At this moment two girls burst through the classroom doors, almost taking them off the hinges. One of these girls had mid-back long pink hair, and was dressed into red battle dress and dark-gray biker shorts – her name was Haruno Sakura – while the other had longer platinum-blond hair made into a ponytail and wore purple top and a skirt of the same color – she was Yamanaka Ino and the heiress to her clan... And the girls were arguing, quite violently, about who was the first to enter the classroom, and, thus, had the right to sit with 'Sasuke-sama'...

Normally Naruto, acting on his crush for Sakura, would say that she was first, hoping that this would make her notice him, but after the Forbidden scroll incident, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki did a lot of thinking and came to a conclusion that his feelings for this girl weren't what he thought, so he decided not to try to approach her that way for the time being... So he kept quiet as the girls continued arguing. Finally, Iruka grew tired of their bickering and yelled at them... Ino was faster and managed to get to the seat next to the brooding Uchiha first.

"Now, you will soon get missions to help the village..." Iruka started his speech once everyone in the classroom was sitting and listening to him. "...So today we will create three man teams, and each team will have a jounin-sensei. You will follow your sensei's instructions..." At this point Naruto stopped listening to the scarred chuunin. "...And Tekuno Kanden as the jounin-sensei." Iruka announced to the three genin that became team six. "OK, next is team seven: Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke..."

"Take that, Ino-pig!" The pink-haired girl shouted. "True love conquers all!" Iruka sighed and shook his head.

"Now, if you will allow me to continue... Your sensei is Hatake Kakashi." The scarred chuunin made a pause while silently praying for the scarecrow jounin to pass this team: he had a soft spot for the blond prankster and didn't want him to be sent back to the academy, like it happened to all the teams Hatake took in the past. "Team eight will be..."

* * *

**This stub is adoptable**:  
* Naruto must grow into wind ninjutsu and spear/knives user. He must be at about strong chuunin level by the time chuunin exams start.  
* Hayate / Yuugao / other sword-user(s) training Naruto is a welcomed idea.  
* chuunin exams must not be held in Konoha. you can choose any other Hidden village (bar Iwa) or a country that has no shinobi (like Iron country).  
* the pairing for Naruto must be straight and not Hinata, Karin or Sakura. Not even in harems.  
* have fun and give me the link to your story.


	23. Harry Potter & FSN xover :: Dark Lady

**Harry Potter / Fate/Stay night crossover :: Dark Lady for the Light Lord**

* * *

As he was fighting against the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries, Harry had to run through a small room filled with various tomes and scrolls. Nothing too surprising if not for a big diagram on the wall depicting some complex summoning circle. Too bad the young Potter had no time to stop and study it, as he had a gut feeling that this summoning ritual could be really helpful in the war with Voldemort. Or...

The green-eyed boy distantly remembered seeing an old pensieve at the number twelve – that could be used to study the ritual circle for as long as he needed. All that he needed now was to wait for a chance to take it from where it was... Harry got his chance when Dumbledore needed him to open the house, so that the wards around it could be reset: while the old headmaster was busy with the ward anchors, the young Potter summoned the pensieve to himself – thankfully it wasn't charmed or warded against that – and hid the device in his clothes, which were so baggy that no one would notice that there was a big stone basin in one of his pockets. It was more than a week before Harry could try using his new pensieve: he needed to be really careful not to be caught by the inhabitants of the Burrow – he didn't want to answer their questions about where from he got the pensieve and what for he was using it...

After some research the green-eyed wizard came to a conclusion that Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries were trying to recreate a ritual that allowed summoning a hero of the past as the servant to the summoner... The dark-haired teen didn't like the idea of having someone _subservient_ to him like that, but according to one of the tomes that were open in the room, the summoned servant could be freed after he or she performed three orders from the master. There were other ways out, but Harry didn't knew what they were as they were on the next page of the tome, and this page was not present in his memory.

Harry did a lot of thinking, but in the end decided that defeating Voldemort was more important, even if the idea of being a master (read owner) of another human being, even if just temporary, didn't sit well with him. So any time he was by himself at the Burrow, he studied the summoning ritual with those limited resources he had from his brief memory of the room in the Department of Mysteries... Still, by the end of summer he made a lot of progress and almost completed recreating the summoning circle... Actually, all that he needed right now was a catalyst for summoning. Too bad, he honestly didn't knew what was needed to summon a hero from the past, and he doubted that trying to activate the circle without a catalyst would do anything good.

In the end, the young Potter decided that the 'universal magical substance' – his blood, even if he had bad memories associated with the blood rituals – would do. So on the midnight of the 28th August, when the full moon was high in the sky, Harry drew the summoning circle on the floor of the living room in his blood: hopefully this would allow the ritual to go unnoticed by the other occupants of the Burrow – according to the texts from the Department of Mysteries, the summoned hero could dematerialize, becoming invisible to everyone but the summoner.

Once he had completed the summoning circle, Harry started chanting in old English, while sending more and more of his magic into the circle, which was now glowing dim red... Once the young wizard finished the chant, nothing happened right away, which left the boy somewhat disappointed. But before he could turn around and walk away, there was a flash of light, followed by a wind shockwave that almost broke the windows and other glass in the room, and threw Harry onto the floor... When the green-eyed wizard was back onto his feet, the summoning circle wasn't there anymore. Good. Though now he had a strange tattoo on his left wrist – he'll need to think of a story explaining where he had gotten it from.

Then he noticed someone sitting on the sofa, someone who wasn't there a minute before. It was a pretty girl of about nineteen with long slightly wavy black hair. Since it was pretty dark, it was hard to tell which color her eyes were, but Harry got an impression that they were dark blue. She was wearing dark (possibly violet) robes that nowadays would be called simple, but since she was a 'hero' from the past, those should have being rather expensive... Oh and her robes made an impression that those robes were all that she had on, which turned into a bit of a problem for Harry as his body didn't knew where to send the blood... He just hoped that the heroine he had summoned wouldn't notice this in the dark.

"Am I too your satisfaction, master?" The young woman asked teasingly, causing her summoner to blush tomato red. She just waved her hand dismissively. "Anyway, I'm Caster..." Looking around and sensing no one but the two of them, she added: "But when we can't be overheard, you can call me by my real name: Morgan." Knowing that she was a 'heroic' spirit, Harry quickly understood who she really was: Morgan le Fey. Then he fainted, causing the summoned witch to chuckle.

**~/ *** \~**

Like always, Harry woke up early the next morning, though that day he was too lazy to get out of the bed just yet: it was far too warm and comfortable for that. And then there was a pleasant weight resting against his back with an arm draped around his chest... Since he didn't remember returning to his room the last night, for a moment Harry was afraid that he had made a mistake and ended not in his bed, but... He was in his bed, the arm around his chest belonged to a female and, finally, there were boobs pressed into his back. Turning his head a bit, he caught a glimpse of jet-black hair. Morgan. That witch!

"Good morning, master." She greeted him as she raised herself on the elbow of her 'free' arm. "Slept well?" Harry had to force himself not to scream: he didn't plan on sleeping with the Caster.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, not carrying about how offending it sounded. Morgan just shrugged.

"Protecting my master is my duty, and I don't see any empty beds here." She answered truthfully, before a smirk appeared on her face. "And don't tell me you don't like having me share the bed with you, master." The 'evil' witch said as she rubbed her chest against his back a bit, causing his morning wood to grow even more hard (if that was even possible, given the situation). And to make the things even worse for Harry, her hand from his chest went south. "You know, we can do more than just sharing the bed, right?" After all, her wish was to live some more, so why shouldn't she live her 'new' life to its fullest? Too bad she'd have to wait for that, as her master had passed out from all the images of them together his mind had produced. Morgan shook her head: poor poor boy. Oh well, while he was on his way back to the world of living, she could remove that parasite from his forehead – it was really doubtful that he was carrying it there out of his own free will...

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**This stub is adoptable:**  
* Harry and Morgan must stay (more or less) together 'till the end. Whether Harry gives in to her seduction is up to you.  
* No matter what, Harry must be paired with female - in other words **no slash**. If Harry has Morgan as his partner, he may be paired with one more (normal) girl. If not, the pairing is monogamous.  
* Grail War should be happening AFTER Harry's seventh year. Morgan may stay around for this long, or she may return to the throne of heroes once Voldemort is offed.  
* Morgan is at least as strong magic user as Dumbledore. She's proficient with runes (far beyond what is taught at Hogwarts), healing, fire magic and Dark arts. She's an animagus who can transform into an eagle.  
* With her help, all of the horcruxes but the cup must be destroyed before the end of Harry's sixth year.  
* Dumbledore must suspect her existence, but he doesn't have a proof unless Harry tells him / Morgan reveals herself.  
* There must be a magical duel between Morgan and Voldemort at some point.


	24. Kumogakure no Naruto

**Warning: **this stub is m-rated for mentions of sex and some swearing.

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**Naruto :: Kumogakure no Naruto**

* * *

Five years old Naruto was running through the backstreets of Konoha like his life depended on... Actually, his life did depend on that – after all there was a mob a villagers that wanted 'to finish what the Fourth had started' chasing him. Why would they want to kill a child? - simple, they saw Naruto not as a person, but as the reincarnation of the demon that almost destroyed Konoha five years ago: the Kyuubi no Yoko. But little Naruto didn't knew that he was a jinchuuriki, so he didn't understand what he had done to make the people wish him dead...

Naruto took another turn, trying to get away from the mob, but, unfortunately for the little blond he had made a wrong turn and, thus, found himself in a deadend. And his would-be killers were already pouring into it. Not giving him a chance to brace himself, they started attacking him with whatever weapons they had... Too bad for them, this time they went too far, and woke something up within the young jinchuuriki...

Suddenly an evil-looking spiky chains made of the reddish chakra burst of Naruto's body, tearing everything in they way apart, be that some debris or a human body... Those unfortunate enough to be close to the boy were killed before they could even scream. The rest of the mob, being too scared to continue their assault on the demon child, fled the deadend... But as suddenly as these chains appeared, they dissolved into nothingness, leaving completely defenseless Naruto lying on the ground with his wounds still bleeding, no matter what the fox inside of him tried to do to heal him...

This was how he was found by a couple of genin. There two weren't good ninja – after all if you have some talent, you'll eventually get a promotion before you turn thirty... But, more importantly, these two were among those shinobi that, like the civilians, saw Naruto as the Kyuubi reincarnated. One of them wanted to off the demon brat right here and right now (and, thus become the 'hero' of Konoha), but the other one, a bit more clever, suggested that they should drop Naruto somewhere in the forest outside the village wall – this way no Kyuubi lover, like their Hokage, will be able to punish them for killing the demon, while they still would be the ones to remove that thing from the world of living...

* * *

Too bad for them, just leaving Naruto in the forest was not enough to ensure his death: wild animals, feeling the nine-tailed demon within the boy were too scared to approach and finish the blond. And thanks to the Kyuubi's powers, Naruto's vitality was so great that all of the wounds he had received that night were healed by the noon of the next day... And once his body was healed, Naruto woke up.

As he woke up in the forest, the little blond decided that he needed to return to Konoha before jiji got really worried about him. Unfortunately, he didn't knew which direction Konoha was, and ended walking further away from the village... He never had a chance to fix that mistake of his, as by the nightfall, when he was crossing a road, he ran into a group of slavers that were leading their ...merchandise for sale in the Grass country.

Some of the slavers wanted to just kill him and be done with it, but the leader of the group had decided that they could earn some pretty good money from selling the brat, so Naruto was chained to the end of the 'caravan', and was forced to walk his way to the Rice fields country along with the other slaves...

About a day after they had crossed the Fire country's borders, the caravan was attacked by the Kumo shinobi, and all of the 'handlers' were killed. The slaves, though, weren't let to go wherever they wanted, not all of them at least – those under seven weren't given an option and were (by force) taken to the Lightning country... The 'journey' took about two weeks, but in the end the caravan had arrived to the one of the outposts Kumogakure no Sato had in the Lightning country. Here, the chuunin ninja administered a test to 'rescued' kids: those that showed the potential to be a ninja – namely those that had enough chakra and could access it – were then sent to the Hidden village itself, while the rest was 'shipped off' to the satellite villages of Kumo that were supplying it with the resources...

* * *

But this particular group of rescued slaves wasn't tested right away, as the ninja here had run out of the materials needed for that – slips of special paper that was so sensitive to the human chakra that it could detect even newborn civilian's levels... At least the rescued kids were fed well, unlike their time under the slavers... Finally, the testing materials were delivered and the tests continued:

"You next, blonde." A chuunin barked at Naruto, before shoving him into a tent were another chuunin, though this one was younger and looked to be much nicer than his colleague. This chuunin gave Naruto a slip of paper.

"I want to concentrate and feel the energy within your body. Once you did that, try pushing this energy into the paper." The chuunin instructed. Doing just like he was asked to, the young Kyuubi jinchuuriki closed his eyes and tried to find some kind of energy inside of him. Finding it, he then pulled it from where it originated, and tried to send it into the slip of paper he was holding... But as he was a jinchuuriki, he already had low chuunin chakra reserves, so when he tried to push them all into the paper, it actually exploded in his hands... "Wha-?" Was all that the chuunin could say, shocked by what he saw. "Hey, Toriko!" The chuunin shouted.

"What do you want?" His partner asked in an annoyed voice, as he peeked into the tent. "The brat isn't giving you problems, is he?" The nicer chuunin shook his head.

"No, but he managed to make the paper explode with his chakra. I think I couldn't do that until after I got my promotion." 'Toriko' raised his eyebrow.

"Are you telling me that this brat already has as much chakra as you do?" He asked. "I don't believe you." Instead of replying verbally, the still-unnamed chuunin gave another slip of paper to Naruto. The blond looked up at the shinobi in front of him, as if asking whether he was supposed to repeat his actions. The nicer chuunin nodded, and the blond boy once again concentrated on his chakra, before pushing it into the paper. Which exploded like the previous one did. "Be I damned." Toriko breathed out. "We should report this to Raikage-sama immediately."

**~/ *** \~**

"So..." A, the Fourth Raikage said, as he finished reading the report from the hospital. "You are saying that my shinobi had saved a jinchuuriki from the slave dealers this last week?" He asked. "And not just any jinchuuriki, but the one for the Kyuubi no Yoko?" The ninja in front of the Raikage, the head doctor of Kumo's shinobi hospital, nodded.

"Yes, it appears that the boy is the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. But there is more to this boy." A raised his eyebrow, clearly wanting to know how special that blond brat was. "We ran some basic genetic tests on him and... You remember that redhead Uzumaki from Konoha you father tried to bring to the village, Raikage-sama?" The leader of Kumo nodded. "It appears that the boy is her son. We aren't sure, but it is possible that his father was Yondaime Hokage."

"What?" The Raikage asked loudly. "You are saying that we have rescued the son of the _Akai Chishio no Habanero_ and _Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō_ ?" The head doctor just nodded. "We are keeping him." A said firmly. "Konoha wasted his potential – how else we would find him among the slaves of the Giruma ring? - But we won't." Then the leader of Kumogakure no Sato addressed to his assistant. "Please, summon Bi to my office. I have some work for him."

**~/ *** \~**

It was eight years since Naruto got apprenticed to the Kiraabi. During this time he grew up a lot (thanks to the Kyuubi not wanting to be sealed in a midget, the blond looked to be eighteen when in reality he was just thirteen) and he had learned a lot from the Hachibi jinchuuriki, though it was mostly taijutsu and kenjutsu as they had different chakra affinities...

Naruto also developed some techniques of his own, including an A-, borderline S-ranked kenjutsu move that got the name '**Reality breaker**'. This was an anti-person technique that was almost impossible to block or dodge as it, actually, was a simultaneous attack from several different directions... how one could do that, not even Naruto himself was sure. And so to increase the effectiveness of his **reality breaker**, the young jinchuuriki got himself a special katana with a blade more than a fit longer than the standard one.

Another set of techniques that Naruto had created, were some minor wind techniques that enhanced his already formidable taijutsu, making it as deadly as the one Raikage himself had when using his **raiton no yoroi**.

But eventually, Naruto's training time was over as he had to officially join the shinobi ranks of Kumogakure no Sato. At least he was allowed not to go to the academy thanks to his apprenticeship... Anyway, the young ninja, with all of the forms required already filled and ready for submission, entered the Raikage tower and headed to the top floor where Raikage's office was located.

Unfortunately for him, he chose the day when many academy graduates were doing this as well, so there was quite a queue there. Oh well... And while he was waiting for his turn to submit his documents to the Kumo leader, his sword got some attention form the cocoa-skinned kunoichi that was Raikage's secretary.

"That's quite a sword you have here." Mabui said as she approached the blond. "Are you compensating for something with it?" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki, though, didn't have a reaction she had expected:

"Than why don't you check, whether I need to compensate for something or not?" The kunoichi gave him a look, before shrugging. She knew that he was a jinchuuriki, so there was no chance that he would be below average – bijuu's pride would not allow that – and she was more than a bit stressed with her job lately, so a long and thorough fuck with a handsome man was something she wouldn't mind at the moment...

"Hm... Why don't you drop by my office, #c12, once you're down with your documents?" She challenged him. Naruto smiled with his eye.

"Sure." He replied, slight blush appearing on his face as his mind, tainted by Kiraabi's perversion, created some interesting images of his (possible) time with the white-haired kunoichi. Mabui didn't see that though, as she was already going down the hall, needing to deliver some scrolls from the Raikage to one bureaucrat or other...

* * *

**This stub is adoptable**  
You can use it as a base for a lemon oneshot, or turn it onto a full-scale story. If chose the later, do follow the rules for "Uzumaki in the clouds" challenge (rules can be found in my profile).


	25. Harry Potter :: PoA DT catastrophe

**Warning: **some craziness was used while writing this stub.

* * *

**Harry Potter :: PoA dimensional travel catastrophe**

* * *

A paralyzing terror was filling Harry, making it almost impossible for the young wizard to move or speak. His Patronus flickered and died, while the white fog was blinding him. But he had to fight, he had to!

"_**Expecto patronum!**_" The mist had filled his vision completely, making it impossible for him to see anything... And now he could hear a familiar screaming in a distance, getting closer by a second. "_**Expecto patronum!**_" The spell failed completely this time. Not wanting to lose Sirius to those foul creatures, Harry tried to reach for him blindly, but a pair of strong, clammy hands suddenly attached themselves around his neck. These hands were forcing his face upwards to the dementors ugly mouth that gave out putrid breath... His mother was screaming in his ears... She was going to be the last thing he ever heard.

And then, through the fog that was drowning him, he thought he saw a silvery light growing brighter and brighter... This light made the dementor release him, and caused the foul beast to flee. The screaming had stopped, the cold was ebbing away... His yes blurred with sweat from his encounter with the dementor, Harry tried to make out what had saved him... It was as bright as a unicorn... Fighting to stay conscious, Harry watched it canter to a halt as it reached the opposite shore. For a moment, Harry saw, by its brightness, somebody welcoming it back... raising his hand to pat it... someone who looked strangely familiar ...but it couldn't be...

And Harry Potter broke one of the cardinal rules of time-travel: he saw his future self. The reality couldn't handle it, and with a loud screaming that must have being heard all 'round the globe and a sound of shattering glass, Harry James Potter ceased existing in this universe...

**~/ *** \~**

Fates, it seemed, weren't done with him, though, as Harry could once again feel solid ground under his back and hear sounds of the forest... Opening his eyes, he found out that he was still by the lake where he was attacked by the horde of dementors. But he was alone, it was late morning, and it most definitely didn't look like it was the end of May. More like late July...

How was this possible, he wasn't sure. So when he couldn't come up with any plausible explanation of how he got there or why he was even alive, Harry decided that he should at least get back to Hogwarts. Luckily, the castle was still there, looking as magnificent as always... Approaching the main entrance of the castle, Harry pushed the heavy oak doors (thankfully, not locked) open. He made a step into, and almost ran into Albus Dumbledore. Albus Dumbledore who looked like he didn't knew who Harry was.

"Professor, what happened to Hermione and Sirius? Are they alright?" The green-eyed wizard asked.

"I'm not sure what you are talking about, young man." The Hogwarts headmaster replied. "But I'm most that I haven't met you before that you shouldn't be here. At this tome at least." The young Potter stared at Dumbledore in shock. And the old wizard didn't miss this. "I think I might have an idea what happened to you, young man." He said after some pause. "Since the wards don't show you a threat, I believe, I can invite you to my office, where we can solve this little problem."

"O-OK." Harry replied. "And some lunch would be nice too." The Hogwarts headmaster nodded, before heading back to his office. Which was located in the place where Harry remembered it to be... Once the two wizards were seated, and Dumbledore had one of the house elves bring them some lunch, the old warlock continued.

"Since people don't just randomly appear out of nowhere, I'd say that something had thrown you across the dimensions... You are from this era, right? It's 12th August 1994." Harry nodded.

"Last time I checked, it was 23rd May 1994." Dumbledore nodded.

"Well, at least this solves one of the possible problems... Anyway, as I said, it is most likely that something had thrown you across the dimensions. When I worked with unspeakables long time ago, some of them were researching the possibility of traveling to alternative universes... They had come to a conclusion that while it is possible, only some really extreme magics can cause it to happen... And judging by the way you act, I don't think I'll make a mistake if I say that it was an accidental travel." Harry nodded. "Now... Do you have any idea what could have caused this?"

"Um... I think I saw myself." The young Potter replied, causing Dumbledore to raise an eyebrow. Then it hit him.

"You were using time turner?" It was now Harry's turn to look surprised. "You know, a device that allows you to step several hours into the past." The young wizard nodded.

"This would explain how Hermione could attend all those classes she had." The Hogwarts headmaster shook his head.

"I see. So sometime in your future, you were using your friend's time turner, but you, as in your past self, made a mistake and you saw your future self... Yes, breaking such a rule of time travel should be enough to rip you from your dimension. But I still don't understand why are you here. Theoretically, you shouldn't be alive... But then again, no one ever appeared here to give us an answer of what happens when you break rules..." Dumbledore shook his head. "Now that we cleared the reason for your presence here, I believe we need to decide what we should do with you... But before that, I believe, I'm at a disadvantage here, not knowing your name, young man."

"I'm Harry. Harry James Potter." The young wizard introduced himself, shocking the old headmaster once more.

"Did you say Potter?" Harry nodded. "Interesting..." Dumbledore said. "Our worlds must be really different. Here James Potter – he was your father, right? – died without heirs twelve year ago, just a week before the Dark Lord Voldemort was vanquished."

"O-oh." The green-eyed wizard breathed out, before asking. "But... Wasn't he married?"

"No. The only girl he ever loved... she chose another. Maybe because James never grew up enough while here, maybe there was some other reason... I'm not sure, but Regina Lupin chose Alexander Evans over him." Now Harry didn't really know what to think. Not only he didn't exist in this world (until now), but it turned out that his mother didn't exist here as well. And on top of that, Remus had a sister here, or... Was it possible that his DADA professor was born a girl in this world? ...Dumbledore chuckled seeing the expression on his face. "Dimension traveling is confusing, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir." The young Potter agreed.

"Anyway, I believe, we should deal with you first, before we will continue our history lesson. From what I can tell, you were a Hogwarts student back in your world. Second or third year, if I'm not mistaken." Harry nodded.

"I've almost completed my third year." He said.

"Then, I think, we should enroll you into the fourth year." The Hogwarts headmaster replied. "I'll have the professors test you to see that you're indeed ready for this." The young Potter nodded again. "And as you claim to be of the Potter bloodline, I believe we should visit goblins. If you're not lying, you will have the money to pay your tuition, and a place to live during the holidays."

"Let's go then." Harry said, deciding that Dumbledore would know better what to do in his situation...

* * *

An hour later, after completing several blood tests, Harry was officially declared to be a Potter by the goblins of the Gringotts bank, and thus gained access to the vaults and properties of the house. ...Apparently, Dumbledore from his original world was keeping things from him, as Harry had never heard anything about Potter vault (he knew only about his trust vault, which, obviously, didn't exist in this world) or about the manor somewhere in Wales he now owned.

But Harry was also relieved that people of this world treated him like he was any other teen: it was so refreshing after the periods of loathing and worshiping he had being through so far... But it did make him wonder, who was that unlucky soul to take his place of the boy who lived.

Several days after his visit to Gringotts – Dumbledore gave him some time to get used to being the official heir of the house Potter, and to render the Potter manor at least somewhat habitable. And, most importantly, to learn the 'new' recent history – Harry was summoned for his tests. He was familiar with most of the professors here, except for the DADA professor, a brown-haired witch in early forties which went by the name Joan McKersey. And according to Dumbledore, she was teaching for five full years already, which meant the position was not cursed in this world.

The young Potter successfully passed all of the tests, and even managed to impress his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor by casting semi-corporeal patronus charm. So, by the end of that day he was officially enrolled into Hogwarts as the fourth year student. Gryffindor as Dumbledore decided to trust the Sorting hat from the another world with its judgment... And once Harry was given his list of book he'd need, as well as the requirement for his school robes, cauldron and potion ingredients, Astronomy equipment, etc.

The shopping went pretty much without accidents. Well, the snowy-white owl that should have been his Hedwig refused to be bought by him here, so he had to settle for a smaller tawny owl as his messenger... Damn, he missed Hedwig. He missed all of his friends, but he knew that there was no realistic way for him to return to his 'home' universe, so with a heavy heart he accepted that he will never see them again. Harry's depression didn't last too long, though, as soon the summer ended, and he had to return to Hogwarts for his next school year...

**~/ *** \~**

It was about ten forty five in the morning of the September 1st, when Harry, with his usual grace, flooed to the Platform 9¾ from the Potter manor. And while many people there were too busy to notice a teen who couldn't use floo well, a couple of certain witches, who were looking out of the window of their compartment, did.

"Hey, Reds, have you seen him before?" Nellie Longbottom asked her friend. Nellie was a fourteen years old pretty girl with shoulder-long dark-blond and slightly unruly hair, that made an impression of her being a tomboy. Not that she wasn't... Nellie had lively chocolate-brown eyes and tanned skin. And, unlike many purebloods, she preferred muggle clothes, so right now she was wearing a light-green T-shirt and brown knee-long skirt... Lily Evans, or as Nellie called her, Reds, shook her head.

"Don't think so. Maybe he is a transfer student? He looks to be our age, so we might be classmates." She replied, not even bother correcting her friend: no matter what she did, Nel continued calling her Reds... Lily, like her friend, was a fourteen years old girl. She had mid-back long reddish-brown hair and greenish eyes (not as green as her father's, though). Lily too was a pretty girl, though she projected much calmer aura than the tomboy next to her...

"That'd be good." Nellie said. "He's a bit small, but nothing that can't be corrected. And he's cute, something that boys of our year aren't... Well, Malfoy can be called cute, but he is such a jerk that I don't understand how even Pakinson can stand being in the same room with him." Lily nodded in agreement: the boys of their age at Hogwarts were either ...not good looking, or jerks.

"Let's hope he isn't a second coming of Malfoy." Nellie silently agreed.

"Discussing boys?" The third member of their all-girls gang, Lyra Black, asked as she entered the compartment. Unlike her two friends, Lyra was wearing wizarding robes, as unlike her sloven of a father, she knew how the heiress of the Ancient and Noble house Black should behave, dress and so on... Especially since she was a half-veela, which meant that many from the darker families didn't see her as a rightful heiress. The two other girls simultaneously pointed to the dark-haired teen (Harry) who was walking along the train, looking for a car were he could find himself a compartment. "Oh. He looks somewhat familiar." Lily nodded.

"Now that you mentioned it... Yes, he looks a bit like James Potter." Her father told her stories about the last Potter from time to time. Mostly about the outrageous pranks he had being pulling during his Hogwarts years. Her mother, though, didn't like talking about Potter for some reason and tried to change the topic to something else.

"Yeah, but he has your eyes, Reds." Nellie added.

"Yes, are you sure, he is not your long lost brother ...Reds?" Lyra added. While normally she tried to be the by-books pureblood, when she was alone with her friends, she allowed her more mischievous side (the one she got from her father, Sirius) out. "You shouldn't keep things like that from your friends, you know." Lily hissed at her half-veela friend, annoyed by her using _that_ nickname. "So, what do you say, girls, shall we introduce ourselves to him?" Lyra said then. Nel nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it's about time we get ourselves a boyfriend – we can't expect to have a good one without having to train him." The Longbottom heiress said. "Why not start now?" Lily looked at her strangely, as, apparently, she was the only one to notice that Nel wasn't using plural. The tomboy-ish blond noticed this. "What? You're the only one who doesn't have to carry on your family's name, Reds. Or, are you saying that you don't want to share with us?" Nellie said with a pout. Well, it was quite a known fact (only among the three, thankfully) that Nel was a perv, so the idea of a communal boyfriend was not something she'd mind. And Lyra being a half-veela...

"Suit yourselves." Lily replied with a huff, though there was a blush on her face.

"Look, she's in denial. How cute." The Black heiress said teasingly. "Well, it's your loss, Lils." And the two blonds left the compartment for some 'boyfriend hunting'.

* * *

**Some more history**:  
On October 31, Voldemort attacked the Longbottom manor, but Alice, Augusta and Frank (he didn't survive the battle) managed to defeat the dark lord in a battle (not without a help from the wards). The three older Longbottoms became the heroes of the war, and some of their fame is transferred onto Nellie. On the other hand, while he is defeated, Voldemort is not dead, thanks to his two horcruxes (the locket and the ring). But so far he is hiding in Albania, parasitizing on various animals, as none of his followers that aren't in Azkaban, are looking for him.

* * *

**This stub** (or the ideas in it) is **free to adopt**. If you are adopting the whole stub, please, do follow these rules:  
* Harry is to be paired with Nellie, Lyra or Lily or any combination of the three.  
* The girls are to bring his potential out (meaning Harry becomes good with academics).  
* Voldemort is reappearing some time in the future, but is defeated before the things become ugly.  
* you must pm me with the link for your story.


	26. HP & SS3:BFE crossover :: Uncle Sam

**Warning: **contains craziness.

* * *

**Harry Potter / Serious Sam 3: BFE crossover :: Uncle Sam**

* * *

Sam Stone was a tall dark-haired man in his late thirties with a build of a professional fighter. He was commonly seen wearing reddish-orange tinted sunglasses, a white T-shirt with a black and yellow bomb logo on his chest, blue slightly worn jeans and red sneakers. And usually he was a very relaxed and laid back man, saying that he had had enough excitement for his life...

..But right now he was getting serious. Why? His second cousin's daughter (by legend), Hermione – a bright girl that he loved dearly like a father; his little princess that was the only one to believe his stories about evil aliens infesting the ruins of ancient civilizations and about evil overmind named Mental trying to conquer the Earth in the past and in the future – Hermione was captured by some evil men that followed the psycho who thought that only magic users were allowed to live... He needed to save her.

Opening his secret stash, he got some of his most trusted friends: the SOP38 pistol with ammo replenisher, a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun will lots of shells for it, and a heavy artillery in the form of an AS-24 'Devastator' automatic grenade launcher. This, he thought, was more than enough to deal with a couple of bad guys.

"Netty, can you locate Hermione for me?" He asked his most trusted, and the oldest friend 'alive'.

"_**Sammy, are you choosing that girl over me?**_" NETRICSA, the AI that existed on a neuro-chip he was given sometime before his adventures began, asked, trying to play a role of his jealous girlfriend. An angry glare to the mirror – Netty could see it through his own eyes – was enough to tell her, that this was not the best time for jokes. "_**OK, OK, just give me a second.**_" Indeed, a couple of seconds later, NETRICSA showed him a minimap with a red dot where Hermione was. Thanks gods, that microchip was still working! "_**She appears to be inside some space-warped zone.**_"

"Yeah, Hermione had told me about some ward that allow hiding locations... We still can get to her, right?" Netty gave him a positive reply.

* * *

Several hours later Sam Stone stood in front of what looked to be an abandoned road leading into a dark unfriendly forest. ...As if that was enough to stop someone like him.

"So, we're on the edge of the ward?" He asked. Netty replied with a minimap where a bright-green line showed the edge of the wards that surrounded the place. "And how do we put it down? I'm not sure that charging in would be a good idea." Netty made a joke about him finally growing a brain, but added the most likely position of the ward-stone on the minimap. "I see." Sam said, before drawing his grenade launcher. Being an expert when it came to everything that could shoot, he easily sent a grenade towards where the ward stone was supposed to be. But the grenade exploded prematurely, for a brief moment revealing that it had hit a wall of some manor or a big house. "Oh, shit." Sam said, shaking his head. But then again, did he expect this to be that easy?

"_**Forget about the ward stone. We have a company.**_" NETRICSA informed him, showing silhouettes of several men in robes running in his direction from the house.

"Oh right, what a rescue mission without blasting some bad guys to pieces." The hero of the past and future said, as he switched his weapon to the pistol: shotgun would not be effective at this range. Using the visual Netty was providing him with, Sam aimed at the closest enemy, and pulled the trigger. A moment later the bullet holed Death Eater's head, and the man dropped dead. Not giving the rest of the bad guys time to recover, Sam emptied the clip in their direction, before diving behind the tree to reload... A series of light beams of various colors flew by the tree Sam was hiding behind. Once the volley of spells ended, he jumped from his hiding place, emptying another clip into the mass of Death Eaters, killing three of them. Before they could respond, though, he was once again hiding behind a tree.

"You stupid morons!" One of Death Eaters – possibly their lieutenant – shouted. "He's just a single dirty muggle. Why can't you kill that trash?" Sam's eyebrow twitched. He once again switched his weapon, back to the grenade launcher, and peeking from behind the tree, send a shell into the mass of dark wizards. More than the half of them were killed by the explosion, and those that survived were injured and unable to continue fighting... Sam put them out of their misery with bullets through their heads.

"So, what with the wards around this place?" He asked Netty. The AI thought for a second, before relying:

"_**While you were taking care of that little annoyance, I did a more in-depth scan of the ward structure. It doesn't look like there are any elements set to directly harm you. You can proceed into the area.**_" Nodding, Sam placed the AS-24 back to its place, and drew a shotgun, before stepping on the warded property... As soon as he passed through the wards, the house (and the bodies of dead Death Eaters) became visible to the naked eye.

"Is Hermione still there?" Sam asked. NETRICSA again showed him a minimap with the red dot, which was still in the same place. "Thank you, Netty." And so 'Serious' Sam, having destroyed his opposition in a from of seventeen wizards, was approaching the Malfoy manor...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile, in the basement of the manor, three young magic users decided that, thanks to whoever dared to attack the Death Eater's base, they could escape the damned place.

"Dobby!" Harry called. A second later always eager house elf appeared with a loud pop.

"What can Dobby do for the great Harry Potter sir?" He asked, his huge eyes focused on his 'master'.

"Can you get us out of here?" The young Potter asked. Dobby nodded. Then Harry looked at Ron. "Do you think that Bill would mind if drop by?" The red-haired teen shook his head. "Then do so please, Dobby. Start with Olivanders and Griphook. And take them to the Shell cottage."

"Dobby will do as the great Harry Potter wishes." And so the house elf began the evacuation of the prisoners of the Malfoy manor...

**~/ *** \~**

"_**Sam!**_" Netty 'said', getting his attention off the bastards with wands that were preventing him from going to the cellar where Hermione was held.

"What?" He barked. "Can't you see, I'm a bit busy here." In response, NETRICSA showed him a minimap with the red dot not being there any longer. Then she zoomed out till the minimap was covering almost entire southern England. The red dot indicating Hermione's location was somewhere on the southern cost. "I see. They have taken her to another base... Damned methods of instantaneous travel!" Switching back to his grenade launcher, Sam fired a shell, bringing the ceiling down onto the group of the Death Eaters he was currently fighting. "We're done here. Let's catch up with Hermione."

"_**Very well, Sam.**_" Netty replied, while showing him the quickest route to Hermione's new location.

* * *

Another several hours of a car ride later, Sam was on the sea shore near Tinworth, not far away from the Hermione's new location. He carefully approached the edge of the wards and allowed Netty to scan them. Apparently, these ones weren't as strong as those at the manor he had encountered earlier. So, shotgun in his hands, Sam entered the territory, and could now see a three-store (though two of the three floor were a mansard) house with two tall chimneys. Unlike the manor, this house didn't look like something that belonged to an evil guy, but knowing how appearances in general (and specifically in the magical world) can be deceiving, Sam proceeded with caution...

It appeared, that him crossing the wards had alerted those in the house about his arrival, as two red-haired men, a dark-haired teen and a blond which (for whom Sam felt an unnatural attraction) appeared out of the house with their wands drawn. But as neither of the four wore the clothes that were the uniform for the Death Eaters, Sam was holding fire for the moment. Especially since the younger males appeared to be Hermione's friends.

"_**Scans match the data I have for Harry James Potter and Ronald Bilius Weasley.**_" NETRICSA informed him. "_**There is no match in knowledge base for the other two.**_" Sam nodded: it was nigh impossible to trick Netty when it came to identification of stuff. So, since these people were Hermione's friends, and the girl herself was in the house, Mr. Stone returned the shotgun to its casing on his back and raised his hands, showing that he was no threat to the house defenders.

"Who are you?" Bill Weasley asked with an angry hiss in his voice: not only 'the golden trio' dropped some extra people at his house, but now a stranger had wandered into his territory. "How did you get here?" Seeing that the man had (a lot of) muggle weapons, Bill didn't think that he was an agent of Voldemort, but one can never be too careful.

"Sam Stone." The man introduced himself, while trying not to ogle the blond witch too much – Fleur was using her allure on him to lower his guard, in case he turned to be their enemy. "You can ask Hermione about me."

"Yeah... I remember Hermione talking about her uncle Sam." Harry Potter said, deep in thoughts, his wand still trained on the man. Bill, though, wasn't convinced that this stranger was on their side.

"How do you know that Hermione is here?" His wife then elbowed him, for making such an obvious mistake: he just told to a complete stranger, who might be Dark lord's agent, where one of his (greater) enemies was.

"Hermione wears a necklace since she was eleven. There is a microchip in it, that allows me to track her location." No, no agent of Voldemort would stoop so 'low' as to rely on muggle technologies... On the second though, how was that chip working in a highly-magical environment as it was a well-known fact that technologies and magic didn't mix well... Bill raised an eyebrow, silently telling Sam to continue. Somehow, the man understood what was asked from him. "I don't know how it works. Can't you tell that I earn my money by busting heads, not creating stuff... I can ask Netty, but she too might not know."

"Who is 'Netty'?" Bill asked, still pointing his wand at Sam, even though Harry and Ron weren't any more... The man shrugged.

"Well, it's a pet name for NETRICSA, an AI that lives on a neuro-chip in my head." The older Weasley didn't seem to be satisfied with that answer, which irritated Sam. "How would I know more about what she is? I told you, busting heads is my job!" The dialog leading to nowhere could have continued for long, had not Hermione appeared out of the Shell cottage. Seeing who was there, the bushy-haired witch ran past the house defenders and gave Mr. Stone one of her bear hugs.

"Uncle Sam!" The young witch cried happily. "You came?" He smiled.

"I was keeping an eye on you, ever since you went on this stupid camping trip of yours..." He said with a glare directed to Harry. "But it's not like I haven't don stupid things when I was younger..." He added then.

"_**Like getting us caught for a banana in Siriopolis? Or, maybe, like trying to wrestle a Kleer when you had a shotgun with loads of ammo?**_" Netty asked courteously, making him growl at her.

"...Anyway, I saw that you appeared to be captured by an enemy, and decided that it was job to save you." Sam continued, though, a bit uncomfortably, as Hermione still had him in her hug, and, girl, her body did mature over the years.

"_**Sammy, should I feel jealous?**_" NETRICSA asked, sensing his reaction to Hermione's body being pressed into his, especially since they weren't really related... It was programmed into 'Netty' to act as Sam's _very_ close female friend on his adventures, before they were sent into the past via timelock, after all.

'_Get yourself a body, and you can do that with me as much as you want._' He replied in his thoughts: after all, it wouldn't do for others to see him talking to himself (especially about the things like this). Netty sent him the best she could do fer glare.

"So, it was you, attacking the Malfoy manor?" Hermione asked, finally letting him out of her hug. Sam shrugged.

"Sorry, didn't ask what the name of the place was... And the white masks weren't very courteous in telling me where I was." He said. Hermione frowned a bit.

"White masks? You fought Death Eaters?" She asked with genuine worry. Sam, though, just shrugged and placed his hand on her head – even though she was not a little girl anymore, he was still almost a head taller.

"Don't worry, they were about as dangerous as common Aludran reptiloid." The two shared a laugh, though the rest seemed to be unable to understand what this all was about.

"So, this is your uncle, Hermione?" Bill asked, finally lowering his wand, though just a bit. The bushy-haired witch turned around to look at the older Weasley and nodded.

"Yes, it's definitely him." Bill nodded in response, and completely lowered his wand.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stone, for being suspicious of you, but you must understand that we're at war right now." Sam waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't sweat about that." He said, before asking: "But why don't we move into the house?" He made a pause. "I wouldn't mind some banana." Sam added as an afterthought.

"_**You never change, Sam.**_" NETRICSA commented.

'_And would you have me any other way?_' Was his reply.


	27. Naruto :: henge no Naruto

**Naruto :: Henge no Naruto**

* * *

It was the second year of the shinobi Academy of Konoha, when the future ninja of the village were taught their first technique, which, surprisingly, wasn't the simplest one – **bunshin no jutsu** – but a bit more difficult one, **henge no jutsu**. And I seemed that even the academy sensei didn't knew why it was like this... But that didn't matter to little Naruto as, while he was practicing the technique, he discovered something interesting: his transformation wasn't that of a **henge**; it was solid instead, like he was actually changing his body into something different. And this got Naruto thinking...

He often wished to be someone else, so that the people of Konoha would not treat him unfairly or even try to hurt him. And now he had his means to do this, to become a different person, even if for a short while...

Deciding to try, the little blond **henge**'d himself into an average looking genin of about fourteen years old, who had as little distinctive features as possible. Checking his new appearance in the mirror, Naruto was satisfied: no one would think that the boy in the reflection was him. Nodding to himself, he slipped out of the house where he lived and headed to the market place, enjoying the lack of negative attention he usually had in public.

First thing, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki (even if he didn't knew this yet) decided, he needed new clothes. But how to get them in the right size, if he was in **henge**? - Wouldn't it be suspicious if a teen was buying clothes for a seven years old child? This was when a young kunoichi from Inuzuka clan walked past him, while dragging an angry boy of Naruto's age after her... Suddenly the little blond in disguise got an idea: why not say that he was buying clothes for his younger brother?

An hour later, Naruto, still under **henge**, was heading home with two bags of comfortable clothes he bought at the fair price (actually, he got those with some discount from the owner of the shop for being 'such a good brother').

**~/ *** \~**

While his ability to transform into other people was useful for getting stuff at fair prices, the greatest advantage it gave him, as Naruto found, was being able to access the library as much as he wanted, even the sections that academy students weren't allowed to.

So, wanting to be a strong ninja in the future, the little blond began studying. At first he wanted to model himself after his idol, Yondaime Hokage, but after some thoughts, he decided to see what other great shinobi Konoha had produced... And during his research he came across the name of Mito Uzumaki, wife of the First Hokage.

Now, what were the chances that he would at random have the same surname as the wife of the second (after Yondaime) greatest Hokage? Not great. So Naruto began looking for the information about Uzumaki... It took him some time, but in the end the young blond found what he was looking for:

Uzumaki clan was an old clan, almost as old as Senju, that they were allied and blood-related with. When the era of the clan wars ended and the Hidden villages came to existence, Uzumaki clan built their own one – Uzushiogakure no Sato – somewhere near the Land of Waves. Later, during the initial stages of the Third Great Shinobi War the village was attacked and destroyed and all of the Uzumaki, save for those few scattered 'round the world, were killed.

The scroll where Naruto found this information also mentioned the Uzumaki bloodline: great, almost intuitive, understanding of the sealing arts, incredible vitality and longevity. While the young blond definitely couldn't know about him having the longevity, he indeed possessed far greater vitality (and everything, like stamina, that came with it) than his peers. As for the understanding of the seals... He'll have to try that.

Assuming that he indeed was of Uzumaki bloodline, Naruto decided that he should not waste his supposed potential, and started to learn the art of sealing. It wasn't easy, especially since he had to study other things for the academy, but he was making a steady progress, which only served to ensure the little blond that his guess was right and he really belonged to (once) great clan...

**~/ *** \~**

It was a bit more than three years since Naruto began using his 'special' **henge** to get better life and education – he still had to learn everything on his own from the scrolls in the library (or any other places, if he get his hands on those), as at the academy he must be himself, and no one would teach him anything properly because of that... But that didn't matter much to the young blond as he had been disappointed in the academy for ages: aside from the three basic jutsu (even if he himself couldn't do **bunshin** even after all the chakra-control exercises he did) there was little actually useful taught there.

The Kyuubi jinchuuriki, still just ten years old, already had the skills beyond what most of his peers had... And yes, he knew about his status of a jinchuuriki – the huge seal on his stomach was a dead giveaway for anyone who knew a thing about the art of fuuinjutsu... During the last three years Naruto had perfected his **henge** to the point where he could almost instantly shift into pretty much any form without any sound or smoke. And since hid transformation was solid, he had incorporated this into his fighting style (not that he showed it to the 'public' yet). While he still hadn't gotten very far with the seals, Naruto still was far beyond simple explosive tags and basic traps. He himself thought that another couple of years and he will be able to make the seals on the fly in the battles – a sign of the mastery in the art.  
Of course, it would be foolish that these were all that the young Uzumaki could do: while his personal fighting style relied heavily on his transformations, he still had decent taijutsu without his **henge**. He knew how to fight against illusions, and he knew a couple of simplest ninjutsu from every base element. And more than a few non-elemental ones... Actually, by most of the criteria he already could become a chuunin – the rest were things like completed missions that required him to become a genin first... And today he will become one!

Naruto was sure that he pass the academy exams with ease (even if some the instructors acted like they wanted him to fail). The young jinchuuriki, disguised as a random civilian boy approached the academy building, like always did for the last three years, and, while he was hidden from everyone's view by a large tree, shifted to his real appearance. It was time to show everyone what he can do!

* * *

The writing test was hard, but not hard enough to make Naruto lose points over it. Not that he would be very sad even if he did: he saw little point in this – most of this knowledge would never be needed anyway... Still, he answered every question to the best of his ability and was pretty sure that he will get some bonus points for the answers he wrote.

The tests centered around the physical abilities were, on the other hand, the easiest ones: Uzumaki bloodline ensured that he had lots of stamina, and growing up as an orphan (more or less) on the streets made sure that he could run fast and jump far and high... All in all, these were the tests where he had no equals, not even the supposed rookie of the year came close to achieving similar results there.

The target practice was almost as easy. For both kunai and shuriken – Naruto wasn't among those who also tried the more unconventional weapons like senbon needles. Next part should have been taijutsu, but the instructors this year got lazy and decided to combine it with ninjutsu part. For some reason the idea was approved, so the students were now one by one called to the 'arena' for an all-out fight with one of their sensei in which they should last at least two minutes and use two ninjutsu (supposed to be from those three taught at the academy, but no one actually said that) in order to pass.

With only two instructors overseeing this part of the exam – one testing the genin hopefuls and one writing the results down – it was almost an hour before Naruto was called to the 'arena'. He was again told the rules (as if he hadn't memorized those by now), before the instructor told him to begin.

The young Uzumaki, though, wasn't given a chance to go on offensive, as his opponent attacked first, and with how close to the edge of the 'arena' he was, he barely had any room to dodge. For anyone else this might have been a problem, but Naruto simply used his **henge** to transform into something smaller at the last moment (not forgetting to add some smoke), and instructor's fist passed over his head harmlessly... Shifting his right hand back to its normal size, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki punched his opponent's gut with enough strength to make him do a couple of steps backwards. Using this opportunity, the blond **kawarimi**'ed his way to the center of the 'arena', while simultaneously returning to his original appearance. With two jutsu performed successfully, Naruto now only needed to last his two minutes, which he did, thanks to his skills in both hand-to-hand combat and in transformation...

* * *

Of course, Naruto wasn't given the rookie of the year title – who in their right mind would give it to the 'demon brat', even he really deserved it – but on the positive side, this meant that he will have a more balanced team than a book-smart girl and a dead-last (both two year older than him too)...

* * *

*** Adopt an idea**:  
The idea is free for adoption, you just have to follow these rules:  
* No pairings or a straight pairing for Naruto. Harems are accepted.  
* Naruto must eventually grow into an S-rank shinobi.  
* He must become chuunin before Sasuke graduates (Naruto graduated two years earlier).  
* Uzumaki clan must be revived (at least by Naruto getting himself a girl. or two. or...)  
* Plot! There must be a solid plot in your story.  
* you have to PM with the link for your story


	28. Naruto :: Uzumaki kitten

**Naruto :: Uzumaki kitten**

* * *

A group of Kumo ninja were kneeling in front of the Raikage, waiting for some brave soul to finally begin the report about their latest mission. Well, the silence lasted only for a couple of seconds, but to these it shinobi it felt like ages.

"Raikage-sama." The leader of the team finally said. "The mission to capture one Kushina Uzumaki was a failure. Forces of the Hidden Leaf managed to get her back from us, despite everything we did." A large dark-skinned man with a build of a professional wrestler rose up from his seat, while lightnings began to crack angrily around his hands. Raikage was not pleased with his subordinates. "The mission was not a total failure, though." The leader of the ninja team added hastily, hoping that it would at least somewhat save him. And, indeed, his words managed to deflate Raikage's anger a bit.

"How so, Kurono?" The leader of the Hidden Cloud village asked.

"While were unable to bring Kushina Uzumaki herself to Kumo, we managed to obtain some of her DNA." Yes, while it will take a lot of money and a lot of time, Kumo still will be able to have the secrets of Uzumaki clan vitality and longevity. The Raikage sighed and dispelled his technique.

"Very well." The man said, before dismissing the team (which quickly left his office, before he had a chance to change his mind and kill them for failing such an important mission).

"You know that at the moment Kumogaure does not possess technologies needed to clone an individual from a DNA sample, Raikage-dono." One of his advisers said, bowing as much as his old age allowed him to. Seeing that the Raikage was listening to him, the elder continued. "But, if you're willing to spend some extra money on this, I think we can get the technology needed from Orochimaru who had recently defected from Konoha. He must be in a need of resources and will likely agree to help up for a compensation." The Kumo leader nodded slowly.

"That may work. Contact Orochimaru." He ordered.

* * *

This actually worked, though not as well as the elder thought it would: first of all the snake sannin asked for almost a ridiculous amount of money for his technologies. But that was not all. The man also wanted some of the Kumo's lightning jutsu as well – Raikage had reluctantly agreed to this – and he was not willing to sell the technology completely, instead wanting to lend it. Which meant that the cloning will be done on his devices and by his scientists with only a small input from the Kumo party. But the desire to have an Uzumaki in his ranks was so great, that in the end the Raikage agreed with these conditions.

Of course, when dealing with Orochimaru, one must be extremely careful, lest he loses more than gains, and with how much Kumo wanted a clone of Kushina, they forgot about this for a moment. No, they got what they wanted, but... The snake sannin had his men try to steal the DNA samples for his own sinister experiments, and when the ANBU cells Raikage had placed around the complex tried to stop the thieves, they just blew the whole thing up, destroying the machines, destroying all the DNA samples in the 'library' and killing lots of good men... Still, little Akuha (whom was taken form the complex a day before that) lived and was going to be one of the greatest kunoichi of the Hidden Cloud's next generation. Especially since she was to be the next Nibi jinchuuriki...

**~/ *** \~**

Little Akuha was six years old when the two-tailed demon was transferred into her, sealed there with the four image seal, and her ninja training began... By the time she was ten, she was already as strong as any genin in the Hidden Cloud, but the Raikage insisted that she continue training till she reached jounin levels of strength without relying on her beast. And after that she was to train for a couple of year under Kiraabi to learn how to control her bijuu and the powers it bestowed onto her.

And since she spent all of her life in away from the general population of Kumogakure, not many knew about her being the new Nibi jinchuuriki, which meant that while her childhood was not really a happy one (if she even had one, because of all the training she was put through), but she didn't have to face the ...difficulties other demon containers had when dealing with the ignorant fools who saw no difference between a kunai and a scroll it was sealed into... When she was sixteen, the Raikage finally deemed Akuha ready to go into the field, and so her ninja career began for real.

At first she was sent on an easier missions and as a member of some team, but as she gained more real-life experience, she got more and more solo missions, many of them so hard that only a jinchuuriki, a super-soldier, could complete them. But she didn't mind that, not really...

* * *

Just a week after she celebrated her nineteenth birthday, a white-haired super-pervert that was Jiraya the sannin visited Kumo and warned Raikage about an organization named Akatsuki was on the move and was collecting the tailed beasts for whatever sinister plan their mysterious leader had cooked up... But at that moment the Raikage didn't pay that much mind to that warning. Not even after Suna was attacked and their new Kazekage, jinchuuriki of the Ichibi no Shukaku, was captured.

And Raikage paid for his arrogance when Akatsuki infiltrated Lightning country and managed to capture Akuha. Of course, the red-haired kunoichi didn't go down without a fight – and what a fight it was – but... but she wasn't enough to beat the two bastards that were sent after her.

**~/ *** \~**

It as only two days after the messenger informed the Raikage that his brother and the jinchuuriki of the eight-tails was captured by the Akatsuki organization, when Akuha – whom everyone thought to be long dead – returned to the Hidden Cloud, thin and bruised and definitely in a need of a lengthy stay in the hospital, but definitely alive... Seeing the condition she was in, Raikage let her rest for a couple of days, before 'interrogating' her about what had happened to her.

Akuha told him about the fight she had with Kakuzu of five hearts and a Jashin follower named Hidan. These two had achieved immortality in one way or another, and that was the reason why she lost against them: they just didn't stay down after seeming fatal blows she gave them.

When they finally defeated her, these two had her transported to some secluded cave in the Bear country, where a giant statue was summoned to rip Nibi from her. And this was where Akuha managed to slew her captors. Somewhat at least... Since she was rather close with her bijuu, the red-haired kunoichi managed to talk it into splitting its power into two uneven parts. The bigger one was left in the original seal and was later taken by the technique Akatsuki used through the statue. The smaller part, and the one which had Nibi's consciousness, though, remained inside her, and, along with her Uzumaki vitality kept her alive through the ritual.

When Akatsuki were done with her, they didn't actually bother to check that she was dead for sure, and just dumped her near the cave. For several days following the 'extraction' Akuha played possum, using whatever powers Nibi still had to stay alive, and once the redhead was sure that her captors had left his cave for sure, she was on her way back to Kumo. But since she had to stay hidden – lest they came after her again – and she was very weak after having most of her bijuu ripped from her, it took her more than two months to return to her home village.

**~/ *** \~**

The months following the supposed capture of the Raikage's brother was really busy for everyone in the elemental nations. It began with Konoha finally declaring one Uchiha Sasuke a missing-nin with kill-on-sight order, and ended with a man calling himself Tobi starting the Fourth Great shinobi war at the end of the Kage summit... Not wanting to risk Akatsuki getting another bijuu, the five Kage decided that Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko will be shipped to Kumo, particularly the turtle 'island', where Kiraabi and Akuha (who had mostly recovered by now) will train him to master his beast...

And so Naruto found himself sent on a mission to investigate the fauna of some island in the sea near the coasts of the Lightning country. Sure, the blonde wasn't the smartest person, but even he could see that something was not right there with how many strong shinobi were sent along with him. And he wasn't even taking Kumo ones in the account...

* * *

Just as the ship was approaching the island Naruto was said to investigate, they were attacked by a giant squid. Though, before the sea creature could do any damage, the jinchuuriki of the Eight-tails appeared, in full-bijuu form, and quickly beat the foolish thing... Apparently, this was the octopus the old sage toad was talking about in his 'prophecy'. The question now was: where was the kitten?

Once the ship was safely escorted to the docks, Kiraabi – that was the name of the Hachibi jinchuuriki – along with another Kumo ninja, who went by the name Motoi, escorted Konoha 'delegation' to the house where they all will be living in the meantime. Of course, there were some small incidents, like a giant gorilla coming out to say 'hello' to Kiraabi, while the group was on the way.

Just as the group approached the house, Naruto noticed a shadow moving through the trees. A moment later the shadow revealed itself to be a young kunoichi, twenty or so years old, as she jumped onto the ground in front of the group, landing without a sound. Much like a cat would... The girl had red hair, which she kept in a ponytail that reached her mid-back, tanned skin and greenish-blue eyes. She was wearing standard black shinobi sandals, but at the same time she had black stockings-like leggings on. Next, she wore (once again) black biker's shorts with kunai holsters and utility pouches attached to them. The kunoichi also wore a modified Chinese dress, black in color with a golden feline sewn onto it on her stomach. This dress stopped just above where her shorts did and had large cuts on the sides to allow her the greatest range of movements. Finally, the girl wore a flak vest – instead of a standard one most Kumo shinobi had – and she wore it unzipped, due to her rather sizable bust.

"Are these our guest, Bi?" The red-haired kunoichi (for some reason Naruto instantly felt some sort of an unexplainable connection with her) asked, as she did a couple of steps forward, which brought her almost face to face with the Kyuubi jinchuuriki.

"Yo, Akuha." The 'octopus-man' waved his hand. "And, yeah, these fine men are the guests of our den." The kunoichi nodded.

"Well, as the guy over there said." She said, while offhandedly pointing at Kiraabi. "I'm Akuha, Kumo jounin and..." The redhead made a small pause, as if unsure, whether she should add the next bit or not. "I'm the current jinchuuriki of the Nibi no Nekomata. And according to the Raikage, along with Kiraabi, I'm to provide some training in controlling the beast to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki." She did another step towards Naruto, bringing herself almost too close to him. "Right, Mr. Foxy?" Akuha purred seductively – who said she couldn't have some fun here and there? Seeing the container of the mightiest bijuu blush under her 'assault' definitely counted as fun in her opinion.

And this was the kitten. Maybe that toad wasn't a charlatan after all...

* * *

**Adopt an idea**: this idea is free to use under the conditions that you give me a credit for it, and you PM with a link to a story where this idea is used. Oh, and please stick to het pairings.


	29. NGE :: Born from the infinite abyss

**NGE :: Born from the infinite abyss**  
_somewhat inspired by the "Hentai Shinji" story by __**gmgurp666**_.

* * *

Shinji Ikari sighed as he watched the digital timer slowly count down the seconds before the Eva 01 will completely run out of power and the life-support system that kept him alive will shut down. And for some reason, be that his mind working overtime as it understood that his chances of survival were quickly dwindling into nothingness, or because he was inside the black abyss of the Dirac's sea, time seemed to move so slowly...

And as the number on the display was lazily approaching all zeros, the desire to fight and survive, despite all odds grew inside the normally wimp boy. And the Eva felt that, for it still shared a powerful connection with its pilot. It too didn't want to perish, even if it didn't have a true soul to have desires or the likes.

Seeing that, unless something was done, they all would perish in the black abyss that was the inside of the latest child of Adam that Lilim had to fight, the small mind of its own that Eva had went into the state of berserk – the only way to solve the problems it knew – once again powering the purple colossus up... With the systems back online the Eva was ready to fight once again, and with the both active minds within it desiring the same thing – to survive – the synchronization rate between the pilot and the Eva skyrocketed, quickly going past the safe limits. Not that either would notice this at the moment...

The berserk Evangelion began moving through the infinite black abyss that the insides of the twelfth Angel were, seeking the S2-core of the child of Adam. Even in its current state of battle frenzy, the Eva understood what it should attack to kill the Angel, and with its more primal senses that those put in it by the Lilim, it could feel, where that core was.

**~/ *** \~**

Back in Tokyo-3, a large group of JSDAF bombers, armed with all N2-bombs Japan had, circled high above the city, ready to unleash their deadly cargo on the Twelfth Angel. Said angel was quite an interesting being: the thing's true body was almost completely flat and lay on the ground, absorbing everything that foolishly touched its surface into the great void that it held within. And the zebra-striped ball hovering above it was actually nothing more than its three-dimensional 'shadow'.

Since the beast was quite a scientific paradox, no one was sure how to kill it – especially since using Eva's against it so far proved to be rather useless (and one of the three was actually lost, along with its pilot) – it was a very good thing that Leliel didn't seem to be overly hostile as it actually wasn't doing much if anything at all at the moment, giving the humans a chance to think of something to deal with it...

Or that was so until an unearthly sound that could be categorized as a cry of pain exploded out of the beast. A moment later its 'shadow' became completely solid and a bleeding cut appeared on it. Then another one. And one more. For the next couple of seconds nothing happened, as if whatever was hurting the Angel was preparing to deal one massive blow to finish the alien beast. And indeed it was so as moments later Eva 01, now dark-red from the blood on it, burst out of the Twelfth Angel, finishing the already dying creature with this.

The victorious behemoth made a couple more steps, before the glow in its eyes died down, and bio-mechanical giant fell lifelessly onto the buildings that were there.

* * *

In the Central Dogma, major Misato Katsugari was still in a shock of seeing Eva 01 return from inside the Angel. This meant that Shinji was back! Yes, over the months the boy had been living with her, he grew on her, going as far as pulling some motherly instincts from her being. Misato fully understood that when the Twelfth Angel had 'swallowed' the purple Eva (along with its pilot).

"Send the teams 1 to 4 to the Eva!" The purple-haired woman ordered, before leaning tiredly against the wall. "Just wait, Shinji-kun. We'll get you home soon." She said then in a whisper.

"Um... About that, Misato." The bottle-blond chief scientist of NERV, Ritsuko Akagi, said next to her college friend. "Just before the Eva shut down, MAGI got a brief reading from it. According to the data, the synchronization rate exceeded 400 at that moment. In other words, the pilot's ego-border must have being destroyed. I'm sorry... But at the moment your Shinji is one with the Eva, much like it happened to Yui ten years ago." There was sound of a body hitting the floor as Misato fainted. "She took it better than I expected." Ritsuko commented.

**~/ *** \~**

While NERV scientific department was busy trying to figure out how to get him out of the Eva safely, Shinji, completely unaware that he no longer even had a physical body, was drifting in the warm and calm light-blue ocean somewhere on the edges of the conscious of the Eva 01. Yet it was no normal ocean as he could easily breathe in the 'water', and a long spiral made from dimly-glowing rectangles made a road the end of which was somewhere beyond the horizon.

Shinji tried touching one of these rectangles, and much to his surprise found that those were representations of his memories. Or no, as soon he found himself able to interact with the 'memories'. Maybe these were possible dreams? Or some other creations of his mind and his soul? More like nightmares as the young Eva pilot soon discovered.

And after one of these hellish dreams ended, he once again found himself back in the ocean, though now it no longer had the rectangles, instead being filled with the schools of fishes that were almost alive to the dark-haired boy. But there was something else in this ocean as well, even if at the moment Shinji couldn't see what it was clearly. That something was of a humanoid shape, though... As he came close, the young Ikari saw a figure that he thought he will never see again. In front of him there was his mother. Naked just as he was. Or maybe this was just another sick joke of his mind, as something felt off about her...

"Who... Who are you?" The dark-haired teen asked.

"Come closer, Shinji." The figure in front of him replied, using his mother's voice. "You've grown up so much... You're so mature now."

"Mom?" He asked: maybe this really was Yui? After all, ten years of confinement could change a person a lot... "Where have you been? I was always sad that you were gone. Why didn't you come back?"

"I've being here. I've been waiting for you." 'Yui' replied as she slowly advanced towards the young Ikari. "I knew you would be here. There's nothing to worry about anymore. We'll be together now. We won't part again, Shinji..." She said, wrapping him in a hug, while pressing her body into his definitely not in a motherly way.

"But..." The dark-haired boy spoke, remembering about his duty. "I have to go back. I have to fight the enemy... I have to win!"

"No, you don't." 'Yui' whispered. "You've done enough. You can just stay here, with me, forever. Don't you want to be in a place without pains and sorrows?" No, something was wrong here, and Shinji frantically tried to understand what. Then it hit him: the eyes. Those, while close, were not of his mother. And he had seen those green eyes once before, when Eva 01 went berserk during the fight with the Sachiel.

"No! Get away from me!" Shinji yelled, pushing the imposter away from himself. Then the ocean around him phased out into one white nothingness...

* * *

When the teen could see again, he again found himself in an ocean, though this one seemed to be far more real. Standing up – he was lying just next to the beach – he saw a small island with a single spreading tree growing on it. Underneath this tree, he saw a young woman who was breast-feeding an infant, and slightly older man... Much to his shock, Shinji recognized these adults as his mother (now he was sure she was real) and his father, while the infant... it was him... Suddenly Yui turned to look at him – yes, it definitely was his mother now – while the other two figures vanished.

"Shinji, you came to see me?" She said, as she approached him, while still keeping a comfortable distance from the still-naked teen. "You've grown up so much, and I'm very proud of you..." She trailed off, but after a short pause she continued: "But, you still have to learn a lot to be a man I wish you to be. I know that you didn't like it when she did that, but still hurt her much." Shinji's puzzled expression, for some reason caused Yui to giggle. "Eva." She said then.

"Oh?" Was the very intelligible thing the young Ikari replied.

"You have just met the Eva. And your rejection hurt her: she's just a lonely child, who sought completion with you." The teen just tilted his head. "I'm not too happy with her either, but... I can forgive her, and so should you." Yui continued. "You should go back there and comfort her. Just let her know that she should be herself and not imitate others."

"And you?" Shinji asked, looking at his mother.

"I'll have to stay there." She replied.

"No." He said with an uncharacteristic strength behind his voice. "I've lost you once, and I'm not going to lose you again, Mom. I'll pull you outta here."

**~/ *** \~**

"Akagi-sensei, we're registering three psycho-patterns within 01." Maya said without looking away from her terminal. "One of them identified as Shinji Ikari, while the other two are unknown." This caused Misato frown, while Ritsuko looked rather shocked.

"It can't be?" She gasped. But since she didn't specify what can't be, the others couldn't agree or disagree with her. Though...

"Stop the procedure." Fuyutsuki, who was overseeing the operation to salvage the Third Child from within the Eva 01, ordered.

"No." Maya replied. "At this stage aborting will most likely completely erase both Shinji and the psycho-matrix of the Eva." This made the old man think. But he had to make his decision fast as the patterns were quickly approaching ego-borders, and once those were surpassed, the minds will get the physical bodies.

"Very well, continue. But I want section 2 agents all ready to contain the possible threat." He said then. This was the order that everyone agreed with.

* * *

Several minutes later a beeping sound was heard in the cavernous Central Dogma, signaling that on of the psycho-patterns returned from beyond the ego-border. A few moments there was the second beep. And at the same time some LCL began leaking out between the armor plates of the Eva 01. And as soon as the third beep was heard, masses of LCL burst out, finally attracting everyone's attention to what was happening to the purple and green armored behemoth. Well, it wasn't that anymore, as LCL couldn't have come out of nowhere... And without a solid body to support it, the armor of the Eva fell apart, completely shocking everyone present in the Central Dogma.

When the people there finally recovered from what they saw, they, of course, went to the Eva hangars to investigate the strange disappearance of the Eva 01. And whey they got there, they all were shocked to their cores for the second time a day by what they saw:

There, among the armor plating lay three bodies, all of them living and breathing, and completely naked. One of these bodies, as expected, was that of Shinji Ikari. But the other two were of a complete surprise. Close to him there lay Yui Ikari, looking just like an older and not-albino version of Rei. The third person, though, couldn't be identified by the NERV workers: it was a girl, about sixteen years old by her appearance, which made her be slightly older than the Children; she had a bit unruly light-purple hair that reached her shoulder blades and her skin was pale, making her look a lot like Rei. But her appearance wasn't what had shocked the NERV workers, particularly those who were more or less close with Shinji, so much. It was the fact that this unknown girl was curled into the young Ikari and he seemed to be holding her in his embrace...

"What the hell is going on here?" Misato voiced the question that, undoubtedly, everyone present here had on their minds.

* * *

**This idea can be adopted!**  
you'll have to follow these rules, though:  
* Shinji is to be paired with Eva 01 (you're free to choose a name for her). Other girl may be included, but they must be side pairings. Lemons are optional. No homosexual pairs to be brought to the front of reader's attention, though those can be mentioned (we all know that Maya fancies Ritsuko =) )  
* Shinji and 01 together must be able to form an 'angel-like' being that can fight the Angels. It's appearance must be like that of Adam's during the Second Impact, but with no S2-core and with a 'bubble' containing complemented couple in its head. This semi-angel should be more powerful than Eva 01 originally was.  
* with Yui back, Gendo must stop working towards completing the Human Instrumentality Project - he already got what he wanted from it - and, instead, should do his best to stop SEELE from wiping the humanity. Of course, while seemingly doing their biding for now.  
* the story MUST have a solid plot and be longer than 20 000 words.


	30. Naruto :: Sakae is a cuddler

**Naruto :: Sakae is a cuddler!**  
_My attempt at believable beginning of Naruto/fem-Sasuke relationship_

* * *

Naruto tried to claw the 'Grass kunoichi' – actually, Orochimaru of the sannin in disguise – but the missing-nin caught him with his extremely long tongue. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki tried to wrestle his way out of this slimy trap, but being lifted off the ground and with all of his limbs tied by the thing, there was little that the blond shinobi could do to free himself.

"Hehe... So, the Kyuubi-brat is still alive." The creepy snake-man said. "And when your emotions are heightened, the power of the nine-tails overflows... Interesting." The man pulled his hand back with his fingers spread wide as purplish fire appeared on them. "Let's get rid of this little nuisance. **Gogyou fuuin!**" The man tried to put the five elements seal over the **Shiki fuuin** on Naruto's stomach, but the blonde wasn't ready to give up: desiring to free himself and beat this freak he drew even more on the Kyuubi's yoki, and it exploded outwards form him, blowing Orochimaru away with a force so great that the sannin couldn't recover in time and had painfully crashed into a massive tree...

And Naruto himself now surrounded not with a reddish haze like moments ago, but with almost liquid shroud that was shaped a lot like a demon fox with a single tail. The downside of this transformation for Naruto was a state of berserk, where simple desires like destroying his enemies overrode anything that required more complex logic. So, instead of picking his teammates up and fleeing from Orochimaru, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki attacked him... Thankfully, the mass of the yoki circulating through his body was more that enough to put him on the same level with any jounin speed- and strength-wise, while inhumanly-sharp senses and super-fast reflexes allowed the blonde to keep up with the sannin, who, frankly, just wasn't ready to fight a battle-frenzied demon container.

"Kukuku... Looks like I'll have to bid you farewell now." Orochimaru said, as he sensed ANBU approaching this location to investigate what was going on there – after all, his fight against the Kyuubi-brat was far more intense than anything expected from two genin. "But worry not, we will meet again soon enough." And with those words the missing-nin sank into the tree branch he was standing on. Just in time to avoid a chakra arm of Naruto's demon cloak smashing his head against the tree behind him...

The jinchuuriki of the nine-tails stared angrily at the empty space where the snake-freak was moments ago, but since even his amplified senses couldn't detect the man anymore, he came to a conclusion that the fight was over. And thus the yoki cloak around him began dissipating, and taking most of the energy Naruto had at the moment with it, leaving him very tired... But before he completely ran out of strength, his teammates – Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sakae, the later one being the ice princess and a general teme of the team – appeared by his sides to save him from falling off the tree.

"Let's find a safe hole and retire for the day. We need to regain our energy to continue the exam." Sakae said. Then the blissful darkness claimed Naruto as he blackened out...

* * *

Naruto was woken up early in the night when he felt a body getting too close to him. Opening his eyes, he was greatly surprised to see Sakae try to lay down next to him without disturbing him. But now that she failed in the last part, the Uchiha heiress sighed and just dropped down onto the mossy bedding next to him.

"What are you doing, Sakae-teme?" The blond jinchuuriki asked rather loudly. This earned him a glare from the raven-haired girl as she nodded towards Sakura who sat outside the hollow they were in, as it was her turn to watch for enemies.

"Be quiet, dobe." She shifted on the bedding to find a more comfortable position, which, absolutely accidentally was closer to Naruto. "Now go to sleep, your shift is in three hours, and if you as much as yawn once during it..." She left the threat unfinished. But in truth, she was just acting tough: the run in with Orochimaru left her very scared, and since she could turn to her pink-haired teammate for some comfort, Sakae had to resort to getting this close with the dobe. Well, was Naruto still a dobe after he managed to fight off the snake sannin himself? The Uchiha heiress wasn't sure how she should answer this question... Anyway, at the moment she needed some comfort, she needed to feel safe, and Naruto was the only one there, whom she could use for that. Only he didn't need to know this. Thankfully, the blond teen was so think that he'd never figure out her true intentions.

And, indeed, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki just shrugged and went back to sleep. Sighing quietly in relief that she managed to keep her tough act together, Sakae too allowed herself to drift into the land of dreams...

* * *

When Naruto woke up two hours and forty five minutes later, so that he could get for his shift in watching the team's camp, he, much to his surprise, found himself under Sakae, who was sleeping peacefully with her head on his chest, while her hands were hugging his torso and her legs were wrapped around his right. And the raven-haired girl now looked so different without that scowl she usually had on her face...

And no matter how many times Naruto said that he wasn't a pervert, his body now was having a very certain reaction to the beauty lying on top of him. Yes, 'teme' was gifted with that noble beauty all Uchiha women possessed, though it was always diminished by the scowl she wore on her face. An above that she was very skilled when it came to ninja arts... So, it was quite obvious that Sakae was one of the most desired girls in Konoha (and only thanks to Sandaime, she wasn't married to some political bastard already).

So, of course, when Naruto awoke to Sakae sleeping on top of him like this, while his 'little friend' was shamelessly poking into the raven-haired girls stomach, he freaked out. And his frantic attempts to get from underneath 'teme' without waking her did exactly the opposite...

"Mhmm... Don't wanna..." The Uchiha heiress moaned in her sleep, while trying to snuggle against the body underneath her. Body underneath her... Suddenly, the girl opened her eyes, and, unfortunately, her guess was right: sometime during the night she got far too close to the dobe than she intended to.

Of course, her first reaction was to pummel him, the fact that she could feel his erection was making the things only worse for him (even if it also made Sakae feel better – after all, despite their hate-hate relationship, the dobe was finding her attractive). But it immediately occurred to her that the sounds of fight will get Sakura's attention; something she didn't need at the moment... Plus they were still in the middle of the deadly forest, so, traumatizing her teammate would be a rather bad idea. So, the raven-haired settled for the second best option.

"You will never tell anyone about this." She hissed dangerously, while looking into Naruto's eyes with her sharingan. "Or I will make you bite off your own balls." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki gulped fearfully and nodded. A bit too eagerly. But Sakae accepted this anyway. "Now go." She ordered, while finally letting the blonde out of her 'embrace' – she was still wrapped around him until a moment ago... As the dobe disappeared form her view, the Uchiha heiress sighed. While she hated to admit this, she had enjoyed those three hours that she had spent sleeping with him... Shaking her head to clear it from the 'bad' thoughts, the raven-haired girl went back to sleep.

**~/ *** \~**

It was several months since that incident in the Forest of Death, and Naruto and Sakae kept their distance from each other, whenever it was possible. But, of course, nothing can last forever... The Kyuubi jinchuuriki was getting ready to go to bed – finally, after those horrible days he had to spend in the hospital, following the great battle at the rainbow glaciers – when he heard a knock on his door. When he opened the door, he was quite surprised to see not his sensei, but Sakae standing out there... And the girl was dressed just in her sleeping gown.

"Wha-?" But before the blond shinobi could finish his question, 'teme' pushed him back into his hotel room, before entering it herself and closing the door behind her.

"I feel lonely." Sakae stated bluntly.

"B-But... I was going to bed." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki, who was now again sitting on the edge of his bed, replied, while waving his hands around it attempt to show that his guest should have chosen another time for the visit. But the Uchiha heiress surprised him.

"Then, I'm right on time." And with those words, the raven-haired beauty pushed him onto the bed, before joining him there a moment later. "You will not tell anybody about this." She then added in a hiss, glaring at him with her sharingan. "And you will not try anything inappropriate with me." Then she snuggled into his side, making the Kyuubi jinchuuriki wonder if she didn't have a DPD. "Good night." Sakae whispered in an uncharacteristically soft and gentle for her voice, before dozing off, leaving a poor Naruto trying to comprehend what the hell had just happened...

* * *

**This stub is free to adoption**. (just give _**Psudocode Samurai**_ a credit for fem-Sasuke's name):  
Stub adoption rules:  
* No yaoi pairings.  
* Naruto should be close with Sakae, though them being an item is not a must.  
* There must be some plot, and 20 000 words to your story.  
* Have fun


	31. Naruto :: exchange

**Naruto :: exchange of the highest caliber**  
_After all, all of the bijuu were born from the single entity, and, thus, share a connection far beyond what a human mind can comprehend..._

* * *

**Warning**: contains female Sanbi. And general craziness.

* * *

Naruto, Hinata and Yamato, along with a huge dog that Kakashi had summoned for them were moving through the forest, looking for any signs of either of the Uchiha brothers. And being his usual fidgety and over-enthusiastic self, the blond shinobi was slightly ahead of the rest of his group. For the same reasons the Kyuubi jinchuuriki also wasn't looking where he was walking, so at some point he tripped over the root that stuck out of the ground.

This event wouldn't be of any interest if not for the fact that, apparently, the blond teen fell on the loose stones in the roof of some ancient underground chamber. And these stones fell in because of that, making everything that was on top of them – Naruto himself included – fall down into the opening... As he was falling down, Naruto's shinobi skills kicked in, and the blonde managed to land safely on the rough stone floor of what appeared to be a very deep shaft.

It immediately appeared to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki that he should get out of here, but his attempts of walking on the walls of the shaft ended in a failure: the stones had chakra-disrupting seals on them, as well as the seals that made the stones themselves indestructible... And while Naruto couldn't escape this 'trap' the way he entered it, he still could try the tunnel that started from the shaft.

Using an underpowered rasengan like a small torchlight, the blond jinchuuriki set out to explore the tunnel. And, what seemed to be hours later, he finally lost count of how many turns the corridor had made. This meant that, likely, he was lost in some ancient underground catacombs... Or was he? He could feel a very light breeze coming from where he was heading. So, with his will restored, Naruto continued walking...

About half an hour later, the blond jinchuuriki finally reached the end of the tunnel – a vast chamber built into the mountain side. The chamber was so big, that the all of the summon bosses Naruto had seen in his life, along with the Kyuubi itself, could easily fit in there. And in the center of the chamber there was a fade out seal, so complex that the blond shinobi couldn't even guess what kind of a seal it was... Still, his natural curiosity quickly overcame his shinobi instincts, and he stepped onto the seal.

A moment later it began glowing faint blue, finally revealing its design to Naruto. The seal consisted of four circles of countless sealing symbols, most of which were unfamiliar to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Between first and second circles there were six huge comma-like drawings with triangles between them. The same patter repeated between third and fourth rings as well. Finally, in the very center of the seal, there was an yin-yang symbol, surrounded by nine more 'commas'. Then, just as suddenly as they lit up, the lights of the seal went off. But Naruto had no time to wonder about this as nine spectral dragons exploded from around the yin-yang symbol and connected with his, sending him onto the plane of existence that was different from the usual one.

Whatever those dragons did, it brought Naruto into what appeared to be an endless void, filled only with pastel colors slowly shifting into one another. Or so it was at first, as soon the Kyuubi began fading in, as did six other bijuu – the only ones not there were Six-tails and Eight-tails.

"**And so we were brought back to the place of our creation.**" A voice said, though, for Naruto it was impossible to determine, which of the beasts spoke. It was even impossible to tell whether the voice belonged to a male or a female, so distorted it was.

"**But the human is not Rikkudou. Neither he is anyone we all knew from before.**" Another voice, just like the first one, continued. "**Yet, this boy is the heir of our creator.**"

"**Indeed.**" It was the first voice speaking again. "**But I can feel that Kurama didn't take a good care of him.**" Judging by the angry roar from the Kyuubi, Kurama was its name. "**I do believe, that someone more cooperative should be taking care of the heir.**"

"**If you want to be in this prison, Isobu, you are welcome to switch places with me. It's not like I wanted to be sealed in this idiot.**" The Nine-tails barked back.

"**Is what you wish for, Kurama?**" Isobu, whoever that was, replied. "**I'm willing to trade places with you. The question is, are you willing to switch with me?**" The Kyuubi didn't reply with words, but it began walking towards where the other bijuu were, while the Sanbi in turn, headed to where Naruto was... And as soon as the Three-tails – Isobu? – reached the spot previously occupied by Kurama the nine-tails, Naruto was yanked out of this strange world...

* * *

Naruto was woken up by a throbbing pain originating from his navel. Opening his eyes, the blond shinobi found himself back in the chamber, lying in the very center of that stupid seal on the floor that he had somehow activated. ...Speaking of the seals, Naruto felt like his seal that kept the Kyuubi imprisoned in him was peeled off his body, and this wasn't good.

Unzipping his jacket and lifting his T-shirt, the Konoha ninja looked at his stomach. Nothing. The seal was gone, leaving only a very faint scar behind. No, definitely not good. Yet, there were no signs of the Kyuubi wreaking havoc outside, so this meant that in might be too early to call the situation a catastrophe.

Still, Naruto wanted to know what the hell had happened to the **Shiki Fuuin**, so he dove into the world of his subconscious, only to find that it had changed a lot since his last visit: no longer it was composed of dark and dreary corridors with knee-deep water – now these looked more like natural grots, lightened by glowing reddish crystals that stuck out of the walls and the ceilings here and there. But as the layout seemed to be the same, the blond shinobi headed to where the cage with the Kyuubi used to be. Indeed, the room was still there, though it now appeared to be a huge cavern with a big lake in the middle instead. The crystals were there as well, but they couldn't light the whole chamber well, so seeing fine details was pretty hard for Naruto.

Yet he could not see anything that could be the new appearance of the seal. Or maybe he was just not looking well enough to notice it? Maybe the lake itself was the seal? Deciding that he needed some answers, the blond shinobi approached the edge of the water. Moments later he had to jump back as he saw something quickly rising from the depths... Another second later that something finally broke the surface, and Naruto instantly recognized this beast: it was the Sanbi...

As soon as the three-tailed turtle was above the surface, it began shifting into something else. Something smaller and and much more delicate. Something like a human noblewoman... Indeed, the Sanbi took an appearance of a girl of about eighteen-nineteen years old. She had greenish hair with red streaks,most of which made into two buns, much like those Tenten had, while the rest formed a thin tight braid that reached her (rather shapely) bum. Her left eye, and the only one Naruto could see as the other one was hidden behind a curtain of her hair, was yellowish-golden in color and without questions belonged to someone very wise. Sanbi had rather pale, unblemished skin, which made her look even more exotic... She wore a simple dark-green kimono and even darker obi belt, which she had manifested from her yoki, but Naruto still got a glimpse of what was hidden by it – and there was something to look at, as Sanbi had a nice body with a thin waist and perfectly-sized breasts.

"Greetings, the heir of Rikkudou sennin." The demoness spoke in a soft and completely human voice. "You might know me as the Sanbi, but, please, call me by my given name, Isobu. From now on I will be your companion. Let's get along." She finished with an eye smile as she titled her head slightly, which made her looked even more cute than she was.

* * *

While he got a sound trashing first from Yamato and then from Kakashi for wandering off and getting lost in enemy territory, Naruto still felt pretty well. The reason for this was his new 'partner': even if she was not forced by the seal like the Kyuubi, Isobu was far more cooperative than the fox ever was, and the blonde could feel it.

Of course, the blond now ex-jinchuuriki kept his bijuu swap a secret for now – this would cause too many problems for everyone at the moment, especially since they still had to track down and capture either of the Uchiha brothers...

**~/ *** \~**

The mission, unfortunately ended in a failure, as the Akatsuki member named Tobi snatched Sasuke before Konoha ninja could do that, while Itachi was killed by his younger brother just before that...

While they were traveling back to the Hidden Leaf village, Isobu began teaching her new container how to wield her powers properly. But since they decided that others shouldn't know that the Kyuubi wasn't within him anymore, these lessons were almost completely theoretic. Still, Naruto did learn a lot about what a true jinchuuriki could do. And he even began experimenting with Isobu to find out what other powers their unique union allowed him to wield... The blond shinobi planned to try most of his new abilities that Isobu granted him, while in Konoha – there always was some more or less abandoned training ground where no one will see him using her powers and her yoki.

But fighting and control weren't the only things that the three-tailed demoness was trying to teach her container. After spending only a couple of days within him, she was quite appalled with his lack of knowledge and manners. Especially when it came to women. Something that she planned to rectify as soon as possible – she didn't want her container and _**the heir**_ of her creator being killed for some stupid reason by some offended kunoichi... Speaking of teaching Naruto about women, it seemed that she also would have to try and succeed where boy's sensei – some man by the name Jiraya – had failed. While, like other bijuu, she rarely spent time in her human form, Isobu wasn't a stranger to human mating, and, in her opinion, it was important for her container to know how to do those things right...

* * *

**This stub is free to adopt.**  
You must follow these rules, though:  
* Naruto is to be paired with Isobu and no one else. The actual level of intimacy between them is up to you, but lemons are welcomed.  
* Naruto must be able to use Sanbi-variation of his current jinchuuriki-skills by the time he fights Pain.  
* There must be a plot, and at least 20 000 words to your story.  
* Have fun.


	32. Harry Potter :: classmates

**Harry Potter :: Classmates**  
_settings for HP/FD/MM/LM. The pairing is **NOT** what you expect._

* * *

Harry Potter, age eleven, was walking along the platform 9 of the Kings Cross, looking for anything that could be an entrance to hidden platform 9¾, from where the magical express to the Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry was leaving. Unfortunately, so far he saw nothing that betrayed it to him, where the (damned) platform was. While Harry still had about twenty minutes before his train would leave, he still wished that someone would show him how to get to the magical express as soon as possible...

And it looked like his prayers were answered as he noticed a small family with a boy about a year older than him walking along the platform 10. The young Potter was sure that at very least the boy was a wizard as his trunk was definitely a magical one. So, Harry watched them intently, hoping that this way he'll finally see, where the entrance to the platform 9¾ was... Unfortunately, though, he lost this family when they disappeared behind one of the pillars.

Harry waited for about a minute, but they didn't re-emerge, so, the green-eyed wizard came to a conclusion that what he was looking for was hidden in that pillar, and, having no other options at the moment, he decided to test this theory.

His guess about the portal being in the pillar turned to be a correct one: when he tried to lean on the pillar, he fell through. The first thing he saw after he exited the portal was a scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. There also was a sign overhead that read 'Hogwarts Express, eleven O'clock'.

Harry sighed happily: now there was nothing that could stop him from reaching Hogwarts, a place where Dursley had no power over him, a place where he will finally be free from their oppression! And without his cousin to scare people away from him, the green-eyed boy was sure he will have a lot of good friends. Yes, he was sure, that would enjoy his Hogwarts time tremendously... But first, he needed to board the express.

* * *

Much like he feared, finding a place to seat was not very easy, as most of the compartments were already occupied by some older years that didn't want a firstie with them. But a couple of car later, the green-eyed wizard finally found an empty compartment, and he seized it without delay.

Apparently, he wasn't the only, who had troubles finding a place to seat, as a couple of minutes later a young witch, who without a doubt also was a first year, knocked on the door of his compartment. Harry, of course, let her in, and helped her with her baggage...

Once her things were safely put on the luggage cupboard, the girl took a seat across from him, which allowed the young Potter to study her a bit. She had straight brown hair that reached her shoulders, chocolate-colored eyes and rather tanned skin. She wasn't very tall, but she was still a couple of inches taller than Harry himself was (no thanks to his relatives). And while the young witch didn't possess any outstanding beauty at the moment, she was still pretty, and would only grow more beautiful with time. And she also looked to be a kind one, the green-eyed wizard noted.

"So... Are you a first year too?" He asked, trying to initiate some small talk with her. The girl replied with a nod.

"Yeah." She said. "Do you know which house you want to be in? I'm hoping to become a Hufflepuff." Harry shrugged: he knew next to nothing about the Hogwarts houses, aside from the fact that Voldemort and his supporters were from Slytherin.

"Don't know." He said finally.

"It's OK." The young witch replied with a light smile. The the young witch remembered that they still hadn't introduced themselves to each other, and decided to go first: "By the way, I'm Morag. Morag McDougal."

"Harry Potter." Harry introduced himself, while watching for Morag's reaction – growing up with Dursley had taught him how to read others well... And while she reacted much like other wizards and witches he had met, she quickly took control over her reaction. And since she didn't suddenly start worshiping him or something, she was alright in the young Potter's book, making him want her to be his friend...

Yes, a friend... Having friends was Harry's dream for the longest time, and now that he was free form the Dursley's oppression, he intended to make this dream of his a reality.

* * *

During their ride to Hogsmeade Harry and Morag talked a lot as they got to know each other, and they were on their way of becoming great friends... Unfortunately, they weren't undisturbed during this time, as first some redhead boy, and then some blond pounce barged into the compartment, looking for Harry Potter. And since they both obviously needed him so that they could use him for their own gain, the green-eyed wizard sent them away.

Eventually, though, the train arrived to Hogsmeade. The older years all headed to the horseless carriages that were waiting for them there, while the the first years, Harry and Morag included, of course, were gathered together by Hagrid. The huge man then led them down to the lake, where a small fleet of boats was waiting for them. Since these boat were quite small themselves, Hagrid announced that at most four students could ride one. Harry and Morag happened to share 'their' boat with a girl who had rather short dirty-blond hair and big grayish eyes.

"Tonight is a good weather, so we shall see Hogwarts in all of its beauty." The girl said. "Or so my parents had told me." She made a small pause. "I'm Lilith Moon, by the way." Harry and Morag introduced themselves as well. And the green-eyed wizard was once again pleasantly surprised by the lack of worshiping towards him Ms. Moon showed... But then again, the blonde seemed to be kind of in her own world all of the time.

A couple of minutes later, they could finally see Hogwarts, and, like Lilith had told them, the castle looked magnificent... Unfortunately, they didn't have much time to enjoy the sight, as the fleet of boats was entering a tunnel leading into the bowels of the castle. Once the boats had arrived to their final destination, Hagrid had guided them into a large room, where they were met by a stern-looking witch, who was the deputy headmistress of the school. She cited a brief history of all of the four Hogwarts houses, before telling the first-years to wait there: she will come get them for their sorting ceremony.

As they waited for the witch to return, the first years saw a flock of ghosts floating through the waiting room towards. The ghosts were discussing some poltergeist by the name Pieves, but some more observant students could get a feeling that this too was kind of a spectacle for their 'entertainment'...

Finally professor McGonnagal – that was the name of the witch – returned, this time with roll of parchment in her hands, and told them to follow her into the Great Hall for their sorting ceremony. When they got there and had listened to the magical hat singing a poorly-written song, the deputy headmistress gave the first years some instructions regarding the sorting, but Harry was only partially listening to her, so he missed all but the most important part: sit on the stool and place the magical singing hat on your hat.

"Abbot, Hannah." Professor McGonnagal called, as she began reading the names of the first years from the parchment she had in her hands... Hannah was a shy blond girl with her hair made into a couple of pigtails. And she was sorted into Hufflepuff by the hat after a few seconds of sitting under it. "Bones, Susan." A red-haired girl who stood with the young Ms. Abbot went ahead to sit on the stool and under the talking magical hat. And like her friend, Susan got sorted into Hufflepuff.

Harry continued observing his yearmates as they were sorted. Of course, he paid much more attention to the girls, though not for _that_ reason, he was still a couple of years too young for that after all. His attention on the witches was of him looking for possible friends – since it was only Dudley's gang, which consisted of nothing but boys, that had being bullying him, the young Potter developed a strong distrust of the other males.

Meanwhile, the sorting ceremony continued. Morag got herself sorted into Hufflepuff – it seemed that this year the house of badgers got quite some nice ladies sorted into it – while Lilith, after spending nearly half a minute under the hat, became a Ravenclaw... Soon enough, the Patil twins were sorted, one of them into Ravenclaw and other into Gryffindor, and it was now Harry's turn to sit under that old magical hat...

* * *

After some arguing with the Founders' artifact, otherwise know as the sorting hat, Harry found himself sitting at the Gryffindor table. While many of the students there offered him a seat next to them, the young Potter chose a seat at the very end of the table, where his only 'neighbor' was Fay Dunbar, if he remembered the girl's name correctly. She had dark-brown mid-back long hair and blue eyes, and while still lean and feminine, she, unlike either Morag or Lilith, had some muscle on her... Not that there was anything bad about this.

For the rest of the sorting Harry was quiet, as he was observing the ceremony, even if there wasn't much of interest to him. Well, he still noted that one of those two boys that sought him on the train to try and use him for their gain – the redhead that went by the name of Ronald Weasley – was somehow sorted into Gryffindor. But since the boy didn't look like he was anything special, the young Potter hoped that he will be able to make it clear to him that he didn't want to associate with him.

Once the sorting ceremony ended, though, the green-eyed boy turned his attention to the witch sitting next to him, as he tried to do some small talk with her. Fay turned out to be a rather open girl and she eagerly chatted with Harry during the feast. And from what she told him, she wanted to be an auror when she finally graduated form Hogwarts; she also liked quidditch and, strangely enough for a girl, preferred to be a beater... But despite that a bit odd quirk of hers, Fay was a nice girl, and Harry would liked her to be his friend...

**~/ *** \~**

It's being a week since the classes started, and so far Harry liked it there for the most part. The classes so far were mostly introductory and, thus, not very hard at all. Well, Potions were an exception here, but if one was careful enough to follow the instructions on the board, it wasn't that difficult to brew a potion they were asked to.

The Potions professor, on the other hand, was a greasy-haired bully who had a thing against everyone but his Slytherins. But above all others, Harry seemed to be the primary target of his snide remarks and other verbal forms of bullying. Not that those did much, as the young Potter had learned long ago not to respond to those: it would only make the things worse for him... And this greasy git of a man had only increased Harry's desire to surround himself only with girl friends.

During this first week, the green-eyed wizard was also making new friends. In the house Gryffindor he tried to befriend Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, but both witches were such airheads that Harry wasn't sure that his friendship with them could last. Fay's friend, Helen Clocksman, was OK. Hermione Granger... The young Potter wasn't sure there: the girl was good, but at the same time, unless she changed her ways, she'd end up being an intellectual bully – not someone Harry wanted to associate with... Harry also befriended three older witches, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell, but since they were all older than him, they didn't have much in common at the moment.

In Ravenclaw, the Potter heir became friends with Parvati's sister Padma and a petite Chinese witch Su Li... Hufflepuff girls were more friendly, and Harry was now friends with every witch in his year from this house. What had surprised the young wizard, though, was the fact that, despite the animosity between their houses, he managed to get acquainted with some of the Slytherin witches. He wouldn't call them his friends as they refused to address him by anything but his family name but... Daphne Greengrass and the Carrow twins, Flora and Hestia (the later two were actually in their second year) were still rather nice with him...

**~/ *** \~**

Unfortunately, it seemed that whenever Harry was involved, the things couldn't just go normally. First, the young Potter somehow managed to become the seeker for his house's quidditch team on the very first flying lesson of his: he had rather skillfully caught young Mr. Longbottom when his broom decided that it was too old and stopped working in the midair – while Harry didn't trust (other) males much, he still wasn't about let another boy die when he could do something to save him. Plus Neville was a rather shy and timid boy, not a bully at all...

And if being the youngest seeker of the century wasn't enough for Harry, he and his friends (still all girls) soon after that learned that there was a rare and powerful magical artifact hidden in the castle. And that someone evil was trying to steal it... So the group began researching it. If anything, to be able to stay away form the problems that would surely happen there.

* * *

Before anybody knew it, it was Christmas. Harry (finally, as Dursleys never gave him anything) got presents, and a lot of them. Everything but a wooden flute from Hagrid and an unsigned package that contained an invisibility cloak (which, according to the note attached to the package, belonged to Harry's father) was from his girl friends, and, for the most part, were various sweets. Well, he gifted them back with sweets to, having asked Angelina and Alicia to buy those for him from the Honeydukes shop in Hogsmeade.

Around the New Year, Harry and his girls finally completed their research and they all came to a conclusion that this artifact was the famed Philosopher's stone of Nicolas Flamel. Their research also uncovered that the stone likely was used as a bait for some sort of a trap. What was Dumbledore thinking?

After some thinking, Harry and the girls decided that they should owl the ancient alchemist and tell him how his stone was used. They also decided that they should inform the Ministry of Magic about Dumbledore setting a trap to catch some evil wizard in a school full of children.

While Dumbledore the following days was away in London, doing his best to prove that he wasn't endangering the precious pure-blood heirs and heiresses with his crazy schemes, Nicolas Flamel visited Hogwarts. Without being seen by anyone but those whom he wanted to see him, the ancient wizard arrived to the school and went to investigate the forbidden corridor on the third floor... Half an hour later he reemerged from there, looking very disappointed in his latest apprentice... And after wishing the kid a nice day, Mr. Flamel disappeared from Hogwarts without a trace.

* * *

Spring brought a new problem with it: Hagrid somehow got his hands on a dragon egg, which he was now trying to hatch. In a wooden hut no less... Harry and his friends had spent countless hours trying to show the man that having a pet dragon was not only illegal, but also too dangerous. Especially on the school territory. In the end, they made the half-giant give in, and they contacted the nearest dragon reserve (which was in Romania, unfortunately). But, as one of their teams was in Great Britain for some reason, they were able to take the little dragon away to the reserve much earlier than Harry and his friends anticipated.

Another problem the spring brought with it were the rumors of something hunting unicorns in the Forbidden Forest. But since even Hagrid was very tight-lipped about this, Harry and his friends had nothing that could prove this rumor to be either truth or not.

Finally, since Harry's clique were the only ones who knew that the Philosopher's stone was removed, the big bad wizard that was after it – with some additional evidence they had collected over the time, the group came to a conclusion that it their very own professor Quirrell – was becoming desperate. And by the middle of May, they were actually expecting the man to throw off his disguise and strike any day now.

Quirrell went after the stone three days before the end of the school year. And, truth to be told, Harry saw him going to the forbidden corridor by accident... But as soon as the young Potter saw this, he ran to the Gryffindor tower, where he told everything to Fay. Since she wanted to be an auror in the future, the witch was quite to go and try to stop the dark wizard. But she also wasn't stupid enough to think that mere two first-years can stop a fully-trained wizard. So, after some quick thinking, Fay told Harry to ask his friends, all of them, to come to where the forbidden corridor began: twenty wands, even if most of the students barely knew any magic, still could do enough damage to knock Quirrell out before he could harm any of them.

That day Quirinus Quirrell learned the hard way that sometimes quantity could beat quality. He also learned that day that being hit with almost twenty stunners to his face is not fun at all...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry was sitting in a compartment with his three closest girl friends as the Hogwarts express was carrying them back to London. And the young wizard was looking forward to his summer: as he had been invited by all three girls' families (or, in Morag's case – clan) to stay with them for some time, he didn't have to and wouldn't return to Dursleys, despite the old goat Dumbledore insisting that he should spend his summer with his 'loving' relatives...

* * *

**This idea is free for adoption**. Just follow these simple rules:  
* Harry is to be paired with Fay, Morag and Lilith during the Hogwarts years. Later he might choose one of them as his wife, or you can think of a way for him to keep all three girls for himself. ...other girls may be added into the pairing, but that's not advised: three women is MUCH MORE than enough for a single man. Be realistic there.  
* You must have plot to your story, and the story must be at least 30 000 words long.  
* Have fun.


	33. Harry Potter :: A year too early

**Harry Potter :: A year too early**  
_The touch of Death always alters a human in some way.._.

* * *

**AN**: I had to get this one out of my system. Now, hopefully, I'll be able to continue writing my Naruto-epic stories without much problem

* * *

Hogwarts letters, addressed to the potential first years were always split into three groups. The first one consisted of those that would go to the children raised by the magical families. These letters, while technically identical to the others, were delivered by a mail owl and not one of the professors – after all, the children raised in the magical households didn't need the existence of magic being explained to them... The second group was for the letters that were addressed to the muggle-raised children that were living with families. These letters were delivered by one of the Hogwarts professors... Finally, there was a separate group for the letters, the addressees of which lived in the orphanages. These letters were delivered either by the deputy headmistress or the headmaster. The reason for this was quite simple: usually, other members of the staff weren't qualified enough to deal with muggle authorities at the orphanage as transferring a child to a different school (especially to the one that was not known to muggles) always created a bureaucratic mess.

Normally, magical children raised in orphanages were rare, and this year was no different: only one letter was to be delivered to a not adopted orphan. And Minerva McGonnagal, the deputy headmistress and the Transfiguration professor of Hogwarts, will be the one to do the introduction of the child to the magical world. Not that the with minded it...

Once she was outside of the Hogwarts gates, she pulled the letter out of a pocket of her robes and read the address again... It looked like she'll be visiting one of the many small towns that surrounded London. Returning the letter to the pocket in her robes, the witch disappeared with a quiet cracking sound...

Reappearing in a back alley not far away from her final destination, professor McGonnagal walked the rest of the way to the orphanage. Once she was standing at the front door, she took another look at the letter she was delivering, and almost fell off the stairs onto the ground form shock: the letter was addressed to one Harry James Potter... What shocked the witch so much, was not the fact that the most famous child in the magical Great Britain was in an orphanage, when he was supposed to be living with his aunt's family, no, what shocked Minerva so much was the fact that Harry was only ten this year – he was a year too young to be going to Hogwarts, yet the magic had put him onto the list of the students for this year.

* * *

After a long and very easy talks with the orphanage administration, professor McGonnagal finally met Harry (for the first time in almost a decade). Maybe there indeed was no mistake with him being added to the list of potential students this year: the boy looked actually a bit older than his future classmates, and the transfiguration professor could easily see it in his eyes that young Harry was very intelligent. But these eyes also a bit too cold for a child, uncomfortably reminding the witch of a boy a couple of years younger than her, Tom Riddle was his name, who, she suspected, later became Lord Voldemort.

This uneasy moment aside, the meeting with Harry Potter went smoothly for the Hogwarts deputy headmistress – the young wizard was polite and attentive, and he readily believed in magic. After giving the boy a short introduction talk about the wizarding world, professor McGonnagal took him to the Diagon Alley so that he could get his Hogwarts supplies. Sure, they could have waited till tomorrow so that she could retrieve his vault key from Dumbledore's office, but the witch was sure that five galleons (the fee for summoning it back to the rightful owner) will not be missed by the young Potter.

The short shopping spree for the Hogwarts school supplies took only a couple of hours, and its last stop was Olivanders' wand shop. And it was where they spent another hour, while the old wand-maker was looking for a wand that suited Harry the best. And, unlike what Dumbledore had predicted, that wasn't the brother wand to Voldemort's, though it still was a good match. No, Harry's 'true' wand was a ten and a quarter inches long juniper wand with a dragon heart-string for the core.

Once the young wizard had gotten everything that he would need for the upcoming school year, professor McGonnagal apparated him back to the orphanage, before disappearing towards Hogwarts: she still had things there that she needed to attend to.

**~/ *** \~**

Using the instructions that professor McGonnagal left him, Harry found his way onto the platform 9¾ without any major problems, and since he made sure to arrive with a lot of time to spare, the Hogwarts express was still mostly empty at the moment, so finding an empty compartment for himself to seat was not a very hard task.

And since the wizarding Britain was still recovering from the war with Voldemort, there were too many of the children attending Hogwarts yet, Harry somehow managed to remain the sole occupant of his compartment. Not the most welcoming aura he was producing could have helped there a bit as well...

The young Potter spent his ride up North with nose in the Transfiguration textbook: he didn't want to be unprepared for his classes, even if he was rather sure that the professors wouldn't ask for a lot of prior knowledge on their subjects. And, anyway, it was always better to be prepared... When the train conductor informed everyone that the train will be arriving to the Hogsmeade station in half an hour, Harry quickly changed into his school uniform – according to the rulebook, he had to wearing it for all of his classes and all of the important events, like the welcoming feast – before returning to his book for some more reading...

* * *

While it was rather cloudy back in London, when the green-eyed wizard had boarded the Hogwarts express, here, in Scotland, he was greeted with clear sky filled with myriads of stars. Unfortunately, he didn't have much time for stargazing as a huge man, who introduced himself as Hagrid, the gamekeeper of Hogwarts, called all of the first year students to follow him.

A rather short trip on small boats across the Black lake – during which everyone got a fantastic view of the Hogwarts castle – the firsties found themselves in large room, waiting for the deputy headmistress to return to guide them to the Great hall for their sorting. During this time, a group of ghosts flew through the room, discussing what they should do with some poltergeist named Pieves. And almost as soon as they disappeared through the wall, professor McGonnagal returned and told the first years that it was time for their sorting.

The deputy headmistress led the group of about forty five students – there really weren't many first years this year – to the Great hall, where she introduced the Sorting hat, which then proceeded to sing a poorly composed song, though many seemed to like it... Once the hat stopped singing, professor McGonnagal unrolled the parchment she had in her hands and read the first name, thus the sorting ceremony began.

It was quite some time before his name was called, but Harry was rewarded for the wait with a rather funny sight of the headmaster and a couple of professors at the table almost falling out of their chairs from shock. Still, not wanting to make others wait for too much, the young Potter quickly walked up to the stool and sat on it, placing the talking and singing Sorting hat on his head.

Since he had been introduced to the magical world by professor McGonnagal, who tried her best to be impartial, and he hadn't met anyone who'd make him want to stay out of the house Slytherin, Harry had no reason to prevent the hat from sorting him there... Once the hat voiced the results of his sorting and the trims on his robes changed from neutrally-gray to green and silver ones, Harry went to join his new house-mates at the Slytherin table, partially ignoring the fact that not all of them seemed to be welcoming him there...

* * *

Meanwhile, at the professors' table two wizards were trying to comprehend what the hell had just happened.

Albus Dumbledore, while doing his best to keep a friendly grandfatherly expression on his face, was thinking hard about how he should salvage the situation with the chosen one: many believed the house to be a training camp for the dark wizards. Plus, for some reason Harry showed up a year too early, so none of his tests for the boy were ready. He even had a truly decent professor for DADA this year! Alas, it looked like there was little he could at this point. He'd have to watch the young Harry and do his best to guide him away from the darker elements that filled the house of the snakes...

Meanwhile, the Hogwarts Potions master Severus Snape too was thinking about Harry Potter. The man had a hard time believing that the son of his greatest Hogwarts nemesis got sorted into his house (not to mention, that the boy shouldn't have appeared in his life for another year). But on the other hand, professor Snape could see that the young Potter was not a pampered prince he thought him to be: having had not the best of childhoods, Severus could see it when someone grew up in similar conditions, and there was no doubt for him that Lily's son did not have a very happy life. Likely, the boy grew up in an orphanage or with people, who cared little about him.

That, and having seeing the boy's eyes just ones, the Potions master could tell that the only things that Harry Potter got form his father was his appearance and his last name. Otherwise, he was without any questions Lily Evans' son, just as intelligent. So, Severus Snape decided, he should withhold forming the final opinion about the boy until he had a chance to observe him better.

* * *

Once the feast ended, and the headmaster said some more words (some of those pointed that the man wasn't completely sane), the Slytherin prefects led the first years to the house's common room, which was located in the dungeons. And once everyone arrived to the green-themed room, the prefects told that everyone (meaning, the first years) had to stay there and wait for their head of the house to make a speech.

Indeed, a minute later, professor Snape arrived to the common room, his cloak billowing behind him in a dramatic fashion. The potions master measure each of the new 'snakes' with a glance, before beginning his usual speech about the rules he made for the members of the proud and noble house Slytherin. During his speech, the man also noted the reactions of firsties, and, for once, he was quite sure that he got a sensible bunch – meaning less headache from dealing with them.

With the last words of his speech, the Hogwarts resident Potions master sent the first years to their rooms – yes, unlike other houses, Slytherin let all of the students there have small personal rooms – before heading back to his office in hopes of doing some more of that damned paperwork he had to do as the head of a house...

* * *

A bit later, once everyone in the first year was assigned their new room, Harry was examining his one. While it may appear small to those who grew up in manors, it was bigger than the room at the orphanage where the young Potter grew up, and it was definitely much better furnished: there was a sizable bed with green covers, a wardrobe and a chest that could fit several times the things the green-eyed wizard owned, a table and a comfortable chair and several big shelves for books and other studying materials.

With all of his things moved to their new appropriate placed, Harry once again examined the room, ending with the aged clock on the wall across from his bed. It was already a bit past ten in the evening, so the young Slytherin decided that, since tomorrow would be a busy day, he should call it a day now.

**~/ *** \~**

While the Boy Who Lived was blissfully asleep, Albus Dumbledore was thinking hard about what should be done now. And, no matter how much it frustrated the aged warlock, he couldn't think of anything really great that would instantly make everything as it was supposed to be, according to his view on the 'Greater Good'.

Still, it didn't mean that he will not be doing anything for now and will let the things develop on their own. Despite what one may think, Dumbledore was well aware of what is called self-fulfilling prophecies. And since the public will not take kindly to their 'savior' being sorted into the house of the future dark lords, he needed to do something so that Harry would not fall (completely) into the darkness. So, Albus decided, this time tampering with someone's mail would be justified, if it would keep the chosen one from going dark. Yeah, he decided, he should adjust the castle's wards so that all of the mail addressed to Harry will be delivered elsewhere. Plus, it was not like Harry had any friends that would write him at the moment. And even if he had... Keeping the chosen one from going dark could justify tampering with his mail: it was for the 'Greater Good', after all.

**~/ *** \~**

Next morning during the breakfast, Harry finally noticed that, indeed, the other Slytherins, especially the older ones, were welcoming him. Of course, there was no obvious hatred coming from them, even when no one from the other houses could see it, but they were still very cold with the young Potter. And he had no idea what was the reason for this.

And, it looked like his confusion was rather obvious, as, after the breakfast, when the students headed back to their dorms to collect the things they'll need for the first day of classes, he was approached by the Carrow twins, Flora and Hestia, if he remembered their names from the Sorting ceremony correctly.

"Potter, we couldn't help but notice that you seem to be confused by what's going on here." One of the girls said, and, to be honest, Harry didn't knew which of the two twins she was. "We're going to help you there a bit, and even without asking anything in return. Just remember that normally information in Slytherin has its price." The green-eyed wizard nodded, giving the witches a sign that he was ready to listen to what they had to say.

"Very well then." The second twin said. "You might have being told that the Dark Lord was from the house Slytherin, as was the majority of his supporters." Harry nodded: professor McGonnagal might have mentioned once or twice this fact. "As you surely can guess, many of the students there are the children of those supporters, and having grown up with the philosophy of their parents, they are not exactly happy with the fact that you – directly or not – had ended the Dark Lord on that Halloween night nine years ago."

"While that maybe true, not everyone here is like that." The first witch continued for her twin sister. "Much like many others, our parents too supported the Dark Lord; our father even died in a fight for the cause. We have never even seen him – we weren't born yet at that time... But we don't blame you for this, nor we blame you for the demise of the Dark Lord..."

"What Hestia is trying to say is..." So now it was Flora speaking, Harry thought. He really needed to find a way to tell the twins apart. "While people there might be cold towards you, no one is going to call for a blood feud or something like this over what definitely wasn't a conscious doing of yours. So, our advice to you, Potter, will be the following: try not to stick out too much with your voiced views and be a productive member of the house, and you will find that the people there will be willing to keep their problems with you to themselves."

"Thank you." The young wizard replied, before continuing on his way to his room, while thinking about what the twins had said him...

**~/ *** \~**

While Harry had had a rather rough start of his school years at Hogwarts, by the first Christmas the things began looking up for him: as he was an exemplary student, the older Slytherins let him be since he earned more than enough points to 'earn' himself a place in the house. Also, with his philosophy of treating others the way he wanted them to treat him, he made some 'associations' with his fellow Ravenclaw students, which helped him a lot with his school work... His example even showed some of the Slytherins that throwing around their family name was not exactly the best way to get what the wanted...

And the things were only improving for the young Potter from there as he was on his way to becoming the unofficial leader of his year. Of course, his power over his classmates wasn't that great, but still some of his fellow Slytherin first years were willing to listen to his advices... So, all in all, when Harry looked back at his first school year at Hogwarts, he could honestly say that it wasn't that bad. Much better than what he'd have at that low-level school where his orphanage sent the children...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry's second year at Hogwarts began not that well. Even before he had arrived to the castle: while still on the train, he was approached by a first-year Weasley boy, who accused him of being a dark wizard and proceeded to tell how his parents would be disappointed in him and how he should have had committed suicide instead of allowing himself being sorted into the house Slytherin. Of course, the young Potter wasn't going to take these insults without retaliating, so some simple wand-work later, the still-unnamed Weasley boy found himself out of the compartment, silenced and with a purple glowing words 'prejudiced pig' written on his forehead.

With his disturber out of the way, Harry really hoped that he will have some peaceful time for himself. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to happen yet, and not ten minutes later a blond pounce who introduced himself as Draco Malfoy barged in into the compartment and practically demanded that Harry becomes his subordinate 'cause those with impure blood were good only as servant to the pure-blood elite. Since the young Potter was already quite annoyed from his earlier interaction with the Weasley kid, Draco (along with two gorilla-like goons that were playing the role of his bodyguards) quickly found themselves out of the compartment, while the blond boy also now had 'arrogant brat' written on his forehead.

Thankfully, no one else had disturbed Harry for the rest of the train ride. Not that it helped much, as the heavy rain outside was a constant reminder to the green-eyed wizard that he'll get sousing before he reaches the castle, and since he was yet to learn proper water-repelling charms... Well, the young Potter wasn't looking forward to braving the rainfall...

* * *

Finally dry and warm, thanks to some useful charms, Harry found himself sitting along with his housemates in the Great hall, while professor McGonnagal was making the final preparations for the Sorting ceremony (why wasn't anyone helping her with this task?)... Looking 'round the Great hall, the young Potter spotted some changes at the professors' table: professor Catherine Armstrong who had been the DADA professor the previous year was nowhere to be seen, while a turban-wearing wizard in purple robes was sitting in her place. Having met this wizard in the Diagon alley, while he was restocking his potion ingredients... Alas, it looked like the man was afraid of even his own shadow, so it was highly unlikely that he'd be a good DADA professor.

At one moment, Harry made an eye contact with the man, and he had to clench his teeth from a jolt of pain that shot through the scar on his forehead... Scars, even the cursed ones, normally don't ache without any obvious reasons, so the young Potter decided that he should investigate his – just in case there was something nasty attached to it that he was previous unaware of.

Finally, professor McGonnagal returned to the Great hall with the new first year following closely behind her. And once the hat had sang its song (this year it was different from what the hat sang during his sorting), the ceremony began. Unfortunately, the Malfoy heir was sorted into Slytherin, which meant that Harry will have to deal with him on a daily basis... Once the last firstie, Blaze Zabini, was sorted (into Slytherin), Dumbledore said some odd words that included a warning about a gruesome death in the right corridor of the third floor, and the feast began...

* * *

After the feast, and after professor Snape's introductory speech, the young Malfoy heir tried to establish himself as the top dog in the house Slytherin by throwing around his father's name. Of course, since he himself couldn't do anything but order his two grunts to beat the opposition to enforce his views on who must be leader among the students, only firstie (and not even all of them) seemed to agree with the blond boy here.

Unfortunately, Harry happened to be the unofficial leader of his year, so some of his pretensions Draco brought up to him. A couple of really basic spells later, though, the spoiled brat decided to take a time out and think up some other strategy that would make him the leader of the Slytherin students...

"_**Stupid, pompous brats!.. Oh, how I hate them. They think that the world belongs to them, yet they are not worth even the space their bodies occupy.**_" Harry almost jumped out of his skin when the portrait of Salazar Slytherin, which was hanging on the wall behind him, spoke – normally this portrait, unlike the others in the castle, kept its silence... Looking around the room, the young Potter noticed that no one else seemed to have heard the painting, even if it spoke well above whisper... The portrait, though, noticed that someone had heard and understood it. "_**Hmm... A speaker?**_"

"_**Um, excuse me?**_" Harry replied. Salazar on the painting nodded to himself.

"_**Yes, definitely a speaker.**_" He summed up. "_**And you are among those whom I'd consider to be my student back in those days...**_" Harry made a small but polite bow.

"_**Thank you, sir.**_" Salazar muttered something that the young Potter couldn't hear well under his breath in a mix of the Old English and Latin before becoming silent once again... And only when the portrait stopped talking, the green-eyed wizard became aware of the dead silence in the common room. Turning around, he saw that pretty much everyone present there was staring at him. "What?" Harry asked after a couple of seconds.

* * *

As the Carrow twins explained him later in a private, Harry was a parselmouth – someone with the ability to talk to serpents; the ability that was thought to run through the Slytherin bloodline only. And because of this Harry was now seen as a descendant of the 'greatest of the Hogwarts four' and some sort of royalty, despite his blood status. Surely, there were people, who disagreed with him being anything more than a 'dirty half-blood' – the young Malfoy among them – but there was little they could do against the majority of the house...

Despite once again being the center of everyone's attention (and unwillingly so), the young Potter managed to do alright: while the students from the other houses, especially the Gryffindors, were calling for his blood just because he was a parselmouth, he didn't let it get to him, and soon the people found something else to direct their attention to. Having Flora and Hestia by his side also helped Harry a lot...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile, the school year progressed, and the troubles were following the young Potter. First, there was professor Quirrell himself: like Harry had feared, the man was not capable of teaching DADA properly. And then there was the mystery of the forbidden corridor – something was making the green-eye Slytherin think that this all was some kind of a test to him (the Boy Who Lived) that the headmaster had cooked up. And while the Potter heir decided that was not going to dance to Dumbledore's tune, he still did some research to find out what was hidden there. And according to drunk Hagrid, it was the Philosopher's stone...

Soon, the Halloween came, and Harry had a feeling that something was gonna happen that night. He was proven right, when in the middle of the feast professor Quirrell burst into the Great hall and informed everyone about a troll in the dungeons... And Dumbledore in all of his wisdom ordered everyone back to the common rooms, forgetting that Slytherin's was in the dungeons as well. Luckily, the young 'snakes' didn't meet the beast on their way to the safety of the common room...

The next morning, though, Harry learned that a first-year muggleborn firstie witch was mauled badly by the trolls – the girl was crying her eyes out in the toilet during the feast (some insensitive jerk made her cry earlier that day) and so she didn't knew about the troll. Thankfully, while she'd have to spend some time in the Hospital wing, the young witch will recover completely.

The next several day were quiet, but it didn't last long: during the Gryffindor-Slytherin quidditch match someone jinxed the bludgers and the balls tried to attack Harry, who was on the tribune with his associates. They managed to dodge the balls for long enough for the professors to arrive there and try to protect them. Though, using magic against the bludgers turned out to be not the best idea, as the balls just exploded violently, showering the area with shrapnel...

Whoever was behind that attack – for Harry there was no doubt that it was an attempt on his life – he decided to lay low for some time, so next couple of months was relatively peaceful for the green-eyed wizard.

The Christmas holiday this year was great for the young Potter. He even got more that just several presents this time. And among those there were some sweets from Flora and Hestia, with whom by now Harry was more than just associates (and, of course, he had sent them a gift: some Honeydukes chocolates he had obtained through one of the older student). But there was another gift that the young wizard found interesting. There was an unsigned package containing an invisibility cloak that was said to be his father's... While it was very tempting to do some night-time exploration of the castle, Harry decided that it was not worth the risk of losing the cloak if he was caught.

The early spring was surprisingly uneventful, not that the young Potter thought that it was a bad thing. But as the time was approaching the end of the semester, the green-eyed Slytherin saw professor Quirrell acting more and more suspiciously – like the man wanted to go after the Philosopher's stone, but was not sure of how to do that unnoticed... Speaking of Quirrell, Harry did some research on the cursed scar he had, and he came to a conclusion that there should be some sort of a connection between him and whoever else was there for the scar to cause him pain. And since the Potter heir was quite sure that he hadn't met the stuttering professor before this year, the evidence pointed it to the man being a host to some other entity. The wraith of Lord Voldemort, if Harry was to make a guess.

And the news that the Dark Lord wasn't dead, not completely at least, was a very very bad one, especially since it would take more than just a residue of dark magic in his head for the cursed scar to work as it did. He'll have to consult goblin cursebreakers about this...

At the very end of the year, when most of the exams were over, Harry had heard that Quirrell (or Voldemort as no one could know which of them was in control of the body) went after the stone. And since the green-eyed Slytherin wasn't going to go after the man himself and just informed professor Snape about this, he stayed well away from the trouble he could have found himself in.

* * *

While this year was not an easy one for the young Potter, it was still pretty good. Especially when Flora and Hestia, who became his friends and with whom he shared the compartment on the train ride back to London, completely unexpectedly each gave him a light kiss on a cheek just as the train was slowing down next to the platform 9¾.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry didn't like what the cursebreakers had uncovered – who would like to have a shard of their parents' killer's soul stuck in their forehead – but he was thankful that this thing was found. And removed and destroyed. Especially since without this _freeloader_ the green-eyed wizard felt so much better.

Unfortunately, it wasn't clear whether this soul shard was the only one, or Lord Voldemort had split his soul more than ones in hopes of achieving immortality. And the goblins weren't thrilled with the possibility that another such abomination might be somewhere in their bank... The ordered every cursebreaker teams they had available to check the contents of all of the vault. Should they find another soul shard somewhere, the contents of that vault would be seized by the Goblin nation (and Harry was getting ten percent of the vault's content's worth for his 'deeds for the security of the Goblin nation') and its owner would be banned for Gringotts forever...

And judging by the fact that at the very beginning of August he had received a statement from the bank telling him that some substantial amount of galleons was transferred into the Potter vault, the goblins had found a soul shard hidden in their bank.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry sighed as he boarded the Hogwarts express. If he was to believe the 'Daily Prophet', Gilderoy Lockhart will be their DADA professor for this year, and the man was even more useless that Quirrell had been. Even worse, Lockhart had everyone buy a full set of his books, which were far from cheap...

Thankfully, all other professors (other than the ghostly Binns), whose lessons the young Potter will be attending, were at very least competent in their respective areas. And, to be honest, Harry was looking forward to Charms and Transfiguration and Potions as those were his favorite subjects; he was also looking forward to Ancient Runes as the subject intrigued him.

Since like always he arrived a bit early, finding a compartment for himself (and the twins, as Flora and Hestia will definitely be joining him later – while they were cold towards him in the beginning, now they were friends and, if _that event_ was of any indication, their relationship might as well progress further at some point in the future) wasn't difficult. And since the twins hadn't arrived to the platform 9¾ yet, the green-eyed wizard decided to do some more reading for his Potions...

He didn't have to wait for his friends for long though, as ten minutes before the train was to depart the Carrow twins joined him there. And the witches greeted him a friendly kiss on his cheeks, again making the dark-haired teen wonder, whether their friendship will develop into something more with time or not... And now that his puberty began, Harry began noticing Flora and Hestia as girls. And while they might not possess the beauty of nymphs or veelas, they were still very pretty witches; he definitely wouldn't mind getting to know them on a bit more private level.

The thoughts about having some _fun_ with the twins (in a threesome, of course – Harry was a male like all others, after all) would have to wait for some time, though, as two girl, whom the Potter heir recognized as Daphne Greengrass from a year below his and her friend Tracey Davis politely asked, whether they could sit in this compartment or not. For once, Harry didn't mind come more company, even if he barely knew the 'younger' witches...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry's guess was right, and it was Gilderoy Lockhart himself who was their new DADA teacher. So, it looked like they'll have to spend a year listening to the man's stories about his supposed great deeds... Oh well, the Potter heir decided, he could study the Defense on his own (along with those of his classmates that were interested in getting the real knowledge and not in just passing the course). Maybe this was even a bit better: this way he could learn those magics that suited him better, and not the generalized set that the good professor would teach...

* * *

The first two months of the new school year were pretty good for Harry (Lockhart's attempts to make him the one to play the roles of various dark creatures from the scenes from his books aside): most of the lessons were interesting and there was nothing too strange going on in the castle... While the twins were still mostly cold as usual toward him in the public, when they were in more private settings, they allowed many things, up to some snogging...

Unfortunately, this measured life didn't last long: just after the Halloween feast ended, someone found a petrified Mrs. Norris – Filch's cat – and a writing on the wall that said that the Chamber of Secrets was opened. This immediately alienated the entire house as the rest of the students were suspecting that it one of the Slytherins that did this. And Harry didn't like this one bit.

As soon as he had returned to the Slytherin common room, he talked to Salazar's portrait, and, in the end, the founder agreed to tell him where the entrance to Chamber was: sure, Lord Slytherin wasn't the nicest man around, but he too didn't like it when those in his house were persecuted without reason...

The very next day Harry went to the toilet on the second floor (Moaning Myrtle's one) and created some very simple yet rather effective for his cause wards: as soon as someone would touch the detection charm, he'll get a powerful stunner to his face, while another little charm would alert Harry that someone had tried to access the Chamber.

The Potter heir had to wait for a week, but eventually his trap worked and caught someone. When he arrived there, he found just a Gryffindor firstie there. He almost thought that she had activated his trap by a mistake, but then he noticed an old black diary in her robe's pocket. And this diary was almost glowing with the amount of magic – a very dark magic – that it had in it... After confiscating the diary from the girl, Harry adjusted her memories so that she wouldn't remember sneaking around the girls' toilet. Now that he had an artifact that might be behind the re-opening of the Chamber of Secrets, Harry contacted Gringotts and asked for an all-goblin curse-breaking team for his next Hogsmeade weekend.

As it turned out, the diary contained yet another soul shard of Lord Voldemort. And it was the third one that was destroyed. This made Harry wonder, how many more the Dark Lord had created – after all, it would be impossible to off the evil man completely, if he still had another such thing hidden somewhere. This required some more research, so that he would be prepared, when he finds the next soul shard. Or when the dark tosser resurrects himself, whichever happens first...

* * *

With the Chamber of Secrets problem dealt with, the rest of the year was good for the Potter heir, especially when the twins decided that they needed some Harry-time, which by the time the spring began was for more than just some kisses...

Of course, like everyone else, Harry had to endure Lockhart's 'lessons' till someone – read Fred and George Weasley – went on a pranking spree in the early May and somehow managed to expose the blond wizard as a fraud in the process... Lockhart, of course, didn't like this and tried to correct the situation in his favor with some mind magics, but it backfired, and he found himself in the DMLE holding cells before he could do any real damage to the Hogwarts students.

**~/ *** \~**

For the summer before his fourth year, Harry decided not to return to the orphanage and live in the rented room in the 'Leaky Cauldron' instead. This allowed him to stay closer to the magical world, and, consequently, to his unofficial girlfriends... Though, with how the things progressed between them, the young Potter had little doubt that they will end together for the happily ever after. Possibly, even before they will pass their NEWTs...

On his thirteenth birthday Harry was informed by a missive from Gringotts that he could try to become the head of the Noble house Potter – the family magics embedded into the lord's ring were to make the decision about him being worthy of the title or not. And, as it turned out, despite being so young, Harry was good enough to become a lord. This, in turn, allowed him to access the main Potter vaults, as well as to unseal the properties, which included a small manor somewhere in Wales. Unfortunately, the manor was damaged by the fire a decade ago, so it needed some repairs before it was livable again.

In the beginning of the second week of August the list of the books he will need during the upcoming school year arrived. And from it Harry could see the following two facts: first, they had a new Care for Magical Creatures professor, likely Hagrid, as the book was too beasty to be chosen by anyone else; and, second, their new DADA professor might actually be someone who will teach the subject properly, like professor Armstrong did.

The next day, though, turned out to be much darker then Harry would have like it: according to the 'Daily Prophet' a mass murderer Sirius Black had escaped from the Azkaban prison. Some research that the young Potter did had uncovered that the wizard supposedly was Voldemort's right hand man and had betrayed the Potters to the Dark Lord at the end of the war. Some further research also showed that Black had been thrown into Azkaban without a proper trial. After some thinking, Harry owled his findings to the new head of DMLE, Amelia Bones, in hopes that she will clear this mess – officially he just wanted the new trial for Black to get his motives for betrayal out of him.

With this problem (hopefully) taken care of, the young lord Potter did his best to enjoy the rest of the summer.

**~/ *** \~**

Much like it was two years ago, it was cold and rainy on the September the first. But for Harry it wasn't all that bad, as the twins decided to warm him up. Behind the closed and sealed with magic doors – they didn't want to be interrupted, after all.

Too bad, their private time didn't last as long they hoped: about an hour before they were to arrive to the Hogsmeade station, the train was stopped. And searched by a small group of very foul creatures that, according to Hestia, were dementors, the guards of the Azkaban prison... Once these foul creatures were gone, the threesome had some more 'warming up' to forget about their meeting with the beasts...

* * *

It turned out that their new DADA professor was a pro-Dumbledore wizard who was a classmate and a close friend of Harry's parents. But since Harry himself was a Slytherin, the man chose to keep his distance from him, not that the young Potter terribly minded this...

And special measure to keep Sirius Black out of Hogwarts aside, the school year was forming to be a good one for the green-eyed wizard. This year all of his professors (Binns aside, though now the young lord Potter wondered, why no one was doing anything about the ghost) were competent and taught their respective subjects well. And if he was to put the academics aside, he now had a pair of nice and pretty witches that often came to him for some fun...

During the first quidditch match of the season Harry had another close encounter with the dementors as the foul creatures decided to come to the pitch to feed on the students' emotions. Of course, they were chased away by the patronus charms before they could do any harm – not that Harry or the Carrow twins was in any great danger up there on the tribunes... Still, to cheer themselves, the threesome had some fun in Harry's room that night.

* * *

Before anyone knew, it was Christmas. Like always, Harry got some presents, the greatest of which was from his girls. Though, this year, instead of sending it with other, they gave it to him personally. After all, it was hard to gift themselves otherwise...

And even more interesting, on the Boxing day the young lord Potter received an owl from an elderly witch who was the regent of house Carrow and the caretaker for the twins. This witch was sending him a marriage contract. For both Flora and Hestia at the same time. And since the girls didn't look at all surprised by this, the young Potter concluded that they were the ones, who asked for this... After reviewing the contract so that there were no unexpected surprises later on, Harry signed it in such a way that the twins could break it without problems, either for him or for them, if they desired so.

According to this contract, Harry was to officially marry both sisters at the same time during the summer after their OWLs. He was also to pay a bride price of two hundreds thousands galleons total for them, but he saw this as a fair price for the nice and beautiful girl that Flora and Hestia were... Finally, while it wasn't specified in the contract, which of the girls was for which line, he still had to produce a heir for the Carrow line (for the Potter one too, but that was obvious without it being written on the paper).

* * *

Sometime in the early March Sirius Black was caught in Hogsmeade by an auror Patrol. Somehow, Amelia Bones managed to wrestle her right for giving the man a trial from the minister for magic, Cornelius Fudge, who wanted Black be given a dementor's kiss right away.

Apparently, Fudge had a reason for this, as during the trial it was uncovered that he assisted in throwing Sirius into Azkaban without even a questioning. It was also uncovered (the veritaserum potion ensured that everything said by Black was nothing but truth) that he neither was a death eater, nor he ever betrayed Potters to the Dark Lord. He didn't even kill Pettigrew or those twelve muggles.

So, Sirius Black was pardoned and, after receiving a great compensation for his time in the prison, was allowed to return into the society. Meanwhile, Pettigrew, who was hiding in Hogwarts as Ronald Weasley's rat, was arrested. Unfortunately, the rat-man somehow managed to escape the ministry holding cells just before he would be given a trial...

At first Sirius wanted to meet Harry, who, apparently, was his godson. But once the man learned that the green-eyed wizard was a Slytherin, he called him a traitor of the Light and told to never talk to him again, before disappearing somewhere... Harry just shrugged: having grown up in the orphanage, and now being a lord of his house, he didn't feel any need in a godfather at the moment. Nor he wanted such a prejudiced man to be one for him.

**~/ *** \~**

The summer before his fifth year, Harry spent in the freshly-repaired Potter manor. With Flora and Hestia visiting him there rather often, sometimes staying there overnight or even longer... And with how the things were progressing among them, the young Potter was sure that their marriage will be, and it will be a happy one. He also was looking forward to returning to Hogwarts as he and the girls had a couple of fantasies about doing that – now that they were in contract, they were having some real sex – at school...

And with some rumors about the Triwizard Tournament being resurrected and held at Hogwarts this year, the young lord Potter was really looking forward to the upcoming school year. Yes, this year was going to be quite an interesting one, Harry was sure about this.

* * *

**This stub is free for adoption!** Just follow these rules:  
* Harry is to be paired with the Carrow twins and only with them. The twins should be kind of tsundere characters. Lemons later on are welcomed.  
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* You must PM me the link to your story  
* Have fun


	34. Harry Potter :: how to solve problems

**Harry Potter :: How to solve your Dark Lord problems**

* * *

Harry looked out of his room's window. Of course, he couldn't his 'guard', but he could clearly hear snoring coming from underneath the large bush of roses in the garden. This meant that tonight Mundungus Fletcher was supposed to be watching the house number four on the Privet Drive, but the shady wizard was evading his duty...

So tonight was the best time for the young Potter to escape his 'safe place'. And his relationship with his relatives (in whose house he was at the moment), no matter how bad it was, was not the reason why he wanted, no, needed, to run away. Earlier this year, during his adventures in the Department of Mysteries Harry caught a glimpse of a ritual that could help him finally rid the magical Britain of the monster that was known as Lord Voldemort. Of course, what he had seen back then was not nearly enough for him to even think of trying it out, but with a lot of help from the certain blond Ravenclaw witch he managed to recreated it to the point where he thought it was safe to attempt this ritual...

Too bad, for it to work, he needed to be in a place where there was a great concentration of magic, such as Stonehenge, for example, which meant that he will have to be on the run from both the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix for some time... There, though, was another thing about that ritual: to gain his freedom from the Dark Lord, he would have to sacrifice some other freedom of his, and he didn't even get to pick which one. But with how the young Potter had grown up, this, actually, didn't bother him too much, even if it really should have...

Shaking his head to better concentrate on what he was about to do, the green-eyed teenage wizard packed all of his belongings into his trunk. Then he let Hedwig, his owl familiar, fly away, telling her to meet him in a week at Luna's place – before he left the school, he asked Luna about this, and the blond witch agreed to let him stay at her place for a bit, if he needed that... Once Hedwig disappeared in the warm July night, Harry himself picked his trunk, his broom and his invisibility cloak and silently crept out of the house he hoped to never return to. A minute later he too disappeared from Privet Drive, while the man that was supposed to watch the house continued sleeping in the garden...

**~/ *** \~**

It was more than a week since Harry ran away from his relatives' house, and the Order of the Phoenix, led by Albus Dumbledore was still trying to locate the boy. Of course, the order was also planning their own way to deal with Lord Voldemort, who seemed to have mysteriously disappear just a day after the young Potter left Privet Drive...

"Severus, are you sure that the Dark Lord hadn't contacted any of his followers this last week?" Dumbledore asked, while looking at the much younger Potions master. The greasy-haired double agent shook his head.

"Not that I'm aware of." Snape replied. "As far as I can tell, even Pettigrew hasn't seen him for a week, and we all know how _the rat_ practically lives as the Dark Lord's footstool." Here he made a pause. "I know what you think, headmaster, and I don't like this too. We all need to be most aware now as I believe the Dark Lord is planning something grand to happen soon." Dumbledore nodded.

"So, you don't believe that he had captured young Harry as is secretly torturing him somewhere?" The ancient wizard asked then, making his spy sneer.

"I keep telling you that the brat just ran away to get himself more attention! He's a spoiled, attention seeking brat like the bastard of his father!" The Hogwarts Potions master voiced his opinion. "And you don't really the Dark Lord if you think that he would keep the capture of Potter a secret." Dumbledore nodded again.

"Thank you, Severus." Then the Hogwarts headmaster turned to the other members of the Order of the Phoenix. "Now then, does anyone have any information about where young Harry is?" He asked those members of the order, whom he had sent to look out for him missing martyr... They all shook their head, this revealing that they had found nothing worth mentioning. Preventing Severus from going onto yet another rant about how much of an attention-seeking bastard the young Potter was with a light glare, Dumbledore addressed all members of the order. "Then we shall continue looking for him. It's imperative that he is brought back to the safety of his aunt's house." Most of them agreed with him like the good pawns they were. So, the ancient wizard called this meeting to an end and flooed away to his office at Hogwarts to think of how he should alter his plans for the 'Greater Good' because of Harry's streak of rebelliousness...

* * *

Early in the next morning Molly Weasley went to the kitchen to prepare some breakfast – her entire family, along with some other order members were living in the Grimmauld's place – but any of the thought she had in her head were wiped away when she saw one Harry Potter sitting at the kitchen table and calmly drinking some tea.

"Harry? Is that you? Are you alright?" The Weasley matriarch asked as she tried to approach the teen to give him one of her hugs. She stopped in shock, though, when the green-eyed wizard gestured her to keep her distance.

"Don't." He said quietly. "You're scaring her." Mrs. Weasley wanted to ask what he was talking about, but then she noticed that the two of them weren't the only occupants of the room: next to the young Potter sat a girl, who appeared to be about the same age as him. This girl had pale skin, big and naive deep-brown eyes and long sleek black hair. And while she definitely was pretty, even beautiful, the girl's appearance wasn't the most interesting thing about her – the girl was holding onto Harry's hand with her both and she was trying to hide behind him, while looking fearfully at the older witch.

"Who's she?" The Weasley matriarch demanded, scarring the girl even more in the process. And what irritated the older witch even more was the fact the Harry, instead of answering her, diverted his whole attention to calming the girl down by hugging her and whispering something soothing into her ear... Finally, once the girl appeared to have calmed down a bit (she still didn't let Harry's hand go), the green-eyed wizard turned back to Mrs. Weasley who was impatiently waiting for him to answer her question.

"This lady is Irene Potter-Slytherin, my soul-mate." It was almost funny to see how this proclamation dumbstruck the normally bossy Weasley matriarch. Almost, because it was also quite clear that when the older witch came back to her senses, she'll start shouting – something that Harry really didn't need at the moment.

"What do you mean your soul-mate?" She shouted, though, thanks to Harry's quick charm, it came out barely louder than a whisper, but Mrs. Weasley didn't seem to notice this as she continued to rant. "How dare you disappear for a week, returning bound to some unknown girl, when you are supposed to marry a proper witch like my Ginny! For all we know, this tart can be a Death Eater or..." The witch shut up when she found the glowing tip of Harry's wand aimed at her.

"You will never ever badmouth my Irene." The young Potter hissed, almost slipping into parseltongue. Taking a deep breath to calm down, he canceled whatever spell he had ready and continued talking: "She is the most innocent girl you will ever see... And I assure you that I have no romantic feelings for your daughter, nor I ever had."

"How can you know that she's innocent?" Mrs. Weasley persisted, making Harry sigh.

"Because she's a clean slate, barely eight days old." Apparently, this was a wrong thing to say, as the older witch exploded.

"What do you mean 'eight day old'? What atrocity have you done, young man? And what you have been doing this last week?" Harry didn't back away from her verbal onslaught and continued glaring at her, while holding once again scared Irene close.

"She's the result of the ritual that rid the world of Voldemort." Was all that Harry said in response to those questions. "And if she's not welcome in this house, then we shall leave. I've heard that my grandparents owned a nice flat somewhere in London." Not waiting for Mrs. Weasley to say something, as he was quite sure of what she will say, Harry started walking out of the Grimmald's place's kitchen with Irene following him closely behind as she was still holding onto his arm...

* * *

As always, **the idea is free for adoption** if you follow these simple rules:  
* The pairing is Harry/Irene. No other girl for him.  
* As you have guessed, Irene is a merge of what is left from Voldemort's soul (including horcruxes), de-aged, turned into a girl with her personality and memories wiped completely. Irene has her reflexes and muscle memory alright, but she has no memories of her previous (male dark lord) self. At the moment, she's not even capable of speaking well, but she will quickly advance to her apparent physical age (she should reach mental age of sixteen-seventeen by the end of Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts).  
* Irene is also quite shy and reserved, and, at the moment, easy to scare. The only one around whom is comfortable is Harry; actually, at the moment she can barely operate without him being away. She should grow into a more confident and independent girl as she 'grows up'.  
* Your story should be at least 30 000 words and have a solid plot.  
* There should be no lemons for Harry/Irene before she reaches the mental age of sixteen-seventeen.


	35. Naruto :: heirs of Rikkudou Sennin

**Naruto :: Heirs of Rikkudou Sennin**

* * *

While jinchuuriki weren't common at any given time since before the creation of the modern nine bijuu, there still were some well known facts about them. And one of those facts is the following: the seal on the female jinchuuriki is at its weakest just after she has given a birth to her child. Tobi knew this, of course, but he also knew that Minato knew this as well, which meant that there will be many protections and other safeguards in place for when the current Kyuubi jinchuuriki will go into labor. So, even if it meant that he will have to fight against the stronger seal, Tobi decided that he should attack when Kushina wasn't ready to give birth yet – no one would expect this. So, the mask-wearing man had scheduled his attempt to destroy Konoha to August, 31st.

**~/ *** \~**

"She's so cute, 'ttebane!" A certain redhead kunoichi exclaimed as she held her best friend's one month old daughter in her arms. "And I'm sure my Naru-chan will be just as handsome when he grows up. They'll make a great couple, 'ttebane!"

"Of course, Kushina-chan." Mikoto replied with a sigh, not wanting to argue with the ever-energetic Kyuubi jinchuuriki – keeping up with Sakae, while going on the easier missions was hard enough for her. Though, while she was of opinion that her children should have the right to choose their life partner themselves, she too was quite sure that her daughter will make a cute and enviable couple with Kushina's unborn son.

"Anyway, why I've come here today, Mikoto-chan..." The redhead said, while returning little Sakae to her mother. "Tsunade-sama had given her final estimations on when I'll give birth to Naru-chan. She said the it'll have sometime during the second week of October."

"That's good." The dark-haired beauty of the Uchiha clan replied. "Now, any rumors about the next generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio?" She asked... Yes, they were ninja, but it didn't mean that they weren't gossiping house-wives off-duty.

* * *

The two kunoichi spent the next couple of hours gossiping, as they discussed the already born heirs to the major Konoha clans, as well as those children who were still within their mothers. They also talked about Mikoto's firstborn son Itachi and how he was a little genius. And, finally, they discussed various rumors that were floating around the village... But in the end, it was beginning to get dark, and Kushina decided that it was time for her to head home, so that she could cook the dinner for her Minato-kun... But she only made it one block away from the Uchiha clan compound when a man in black cloak with a funny orange mask on his face materialized right in front of her out of the thin air.

"You're coming with me, the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko." The man said, before, suddenly, Kushina found herself being sucked into the only eye-hole of the man's mask... But she was still a good kunoichi and in that short moment while she was still being sucked into the alternative dimension, she managed to activate the special kunai Minato had given her. Hopefully, the blond Hokage (read, her husband) will be able to find and save her before the man who had abducted her manages to do whatever sinister plan he had in his mind...

* * *

...An undetermined amount of time later – she was inside some sort of an ancient temple and couldn't see the sky – Kushina was returned to the real world. And she was returned right into the center of a huge seal, the purpose which she could tell right away, thanks to the affinity to fuuinjutsu she possessed as a pure-blood Uzumaki: this seal was a ram to destroy the **shishou fuuin** on her stomach that kept the Kyuubi at bay.

"Since I'm sure you've alerted the _Yellow Flash_ about your abduction, I don't have much time... So, my dear, shall we begin?" The masked man said, before making a handseal. Then Kushina's world exploded with an unimaginable pain of the bijuu being ripped out of her body...

For the moment she actually saw the towering and impossibly imposing figure of the greatest of the modern tailed beasts standing over her with it's mouth opened and ready to crush her with its massive teeth. But then there was a yellow flash she found herself in the Tsunade's office at Konoha hospital... Another moment later Minato disappeared away... Meanwhile the blond sannin began estimating the damage done to the now ex-jinchuuriki's body.

"This is not very good, Kushina-chan." The slug princess finally said. "While your Uzumaki blood is strong and kept you alive through the extraction, the damage is still massive... I'm sorry, but even with my level of skill, the choice still must be made: either I save your life, or I save Naruto's." Kushina replied her with pain-filled but very determined face.

* * *

Meanwhile, Minato was facing a difficult choice too. True, he had managed to break the man's control over the Kyuubi an wounded him enough to make him retreat, he still had a bijuu on the loose. A very angry and even more destructive bijuu... It needed to be sealed, and it needed to be sealed into a new container, and this container much be a young child, as anybody older than a couple of months would not survive the sealing of the Kyuubi into them – even if he was really good with seals, Minato knew that his work was still too crude, when compared to the true geniuses of the art, like Mito-sama or his Kushina-chan.

And even then, he doubted that just any child will be able to be the tamer of the nine-tails... Uzumaki were the perfect jinchuuriki, but his son wasn't born yet. And there were no Senju but Tsunade alive. This really left him with only one option. And no matter how it pained him to ask another to do such a sacrifice, the survival of the village came first... So, Minato used his most famous technique to teleport to the Uchiha clan compound...

**~/ *** \~**

Mikoto, now moved into one of Minato's safe houses, along with her two children, only one of which was actually her own. One of these children was her daughter Sakae, now the third known jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, and the other was her friend's son Naruto, who might have been the container instead, had Minato known what choice Kushina would make...

Now, while still Uchiha by blood, both she and her daughter were no longer considered as such due to political reasons, and were moved out of the Uchiha compound on orders of Sarutobi Hiruzen, who retook the position of the Hokage. And while Mikoto didn't like this one bit, she was clever enough to understand why this was done: if Uchiha were to get a jinchuuriki as one of them, the clan would become too powerful, and this could lead to a number of consequences, among which there was even a civil war within the village... She and her daughter had their clan name sacrificed to keep Konoha peaceful.

But then again, even Tsunade wasn't sure that Sakae was still an Uchiha for her eyes changed: while her irises remained coal-black like her lineage said they should be, the whites of her eyes weren't white anymore – the sealing of the Kyuubi had changed them to become dull-purple in color...

Little Naruto too was changed from his brief exposure to the Kyuubi's yoki, it seemed, though, his changes were far more subtle and required both Jiraya of the sannin and the toad sages to confirm. It looked like his life force was extreme even for someone of Uzumaki heritage and it was so powerful that one could think that the little blonde possessed the body of _the Sage_ that, according to the legends, belonged to the youngest son of Rikkudou Sennin and the founder of the Senju clan. But, despite this, he wasn't denied his mother's family name and still was officially Uzumaki.

**~/ *** \~**

Despite their unique gifts, Naruto and Sakae were raised by Mikoto and Tsunade, who visited them almost daily, like normal shinobi children. Well, except for they were rarely brought down into the village and spent almost all of their time in the safe house and its quite large garden.

This, though, changed when eight years after the Kyuubi re-sealing, the Uchiha clan, unsatisfied with their political position in the village staged revolution. But before that could have happened, they were eliminated by two of the Hokage's agents – Itachi and Shisui – who were then forced to leave the village, leaving 'exiled' Mikoto and Sakae as the last ones of the once great Uchiha clan in Konoha...

The news of what had happened, especially the sacrifice Itachi had to make, devastated Mikoto, and, despite having a great purpose in her life, she slowly withered away till she passed away one day, leaving both of her children as complete orphans, though Tsunade was still there to care for them. Naruto and Sakae took the death of their mother hard, but they made it through and vowed to grow strong and to never let something similar happen again...

Since Sakae was now the last Uchiha in the village, she was allowed to retake the clan name and was granted access to her clan's scrolls. Meanwhile, Naruto, who finally got some control over the basic abilities his enhanced body granted him, was gifted with the Senju clan scrolls by Tsunade, in hopes that he could make some use of them...

Their self-driven training was very hard and often Tsunade had to heal them from the traumas they got while experimenting with various ninjutsu or taijutsu they weren't ready for, but the duo was growing strong, very strong...

Actually, by the time they were just eleven, both Naruto and Sakae had reached the skill levels of chuunin and Sarutobi, who still was the acting Hokage, had no other choice, but register them as ninja of Konohagakure no Sato. And even more so, he had to make them a tag-team of two, instead of adding them to any of the standard cells... Not that it turned out to be a bad decision, as the duo proved to be very capable and easily completed C-rank missions he had to give them.

Also, during one of those C-rank missions Sakae finally activated her doujutsu, which turned out to be the eyes of the Uchiha clan founder (who also was the oldest son of the Rikkudou Sennin). And since it was already known that Naruto had the _Sage body_ of the Senju founder (and the youngest son of the Sage of six paths), the tag-team became known as the heirs duo. Quite fitting...

* * *

As always, **the stub is free for adoption**, if you follow these rules:  
* The pairing is Naruto/Sakae and no threesomes/moresomes for them is accepted.  
* Naruto and Sakae might end god-like (look at Madara), but they will have to work hard to get there.  
* You're free to twist the rest of the universe as you see fit to accommodate the changes made from this stub.  
* Your story must be at least 30 000 words and have a solid plot.  
* Have fun and don't forget to PM me with the link to your story.


	36. Harry Potter :: Raised by a crow

**Harry Potter :: Raised by a crow**

* * *

The room was located near the top of an openwork tower that stood near the edge of the cliff over the sea. Tall but narrow windows formed almost a half of the room's walls, while another half of the walls couldn't be seen behind tall bookshelves filled with various book and scrolls that covered almost all aspects of human and not human knowledge. And while normally this airy library room was a very nice place to spend one's time, the dark clouds and strong winds outside were making the room a bit less welcoming. Still, a dark-haired green-eyed boy was sitting cross-legged in a big plump armchair, which stood near the center of the room, and was reading a big and rather old scroll in the lights of several light-blue floating magical spheres. This boy was just a couple of weeks away from turning eleven, and his name was Harry Potter. And this tower was the place he called home for the last five years...

"Harri, we need to talk, alright?" A young and feminine voice that belonged to his mentor, guardian and friend spoke next to him, making the boy look up from the scroll he was reading. Just in time to his mentor sit on the armrest of the armchair.

"What's up, Anha?" Harry asked.

"Your eleventh birthday is soon and invitations to various magical school will be arriving soon." The young woman, now known as Anha, replied. "And, to be honest, I want us to move to Britain: I think the invitation from Hogwarts might be something quite interesting for you." Harry tilted his head to the side, while raising his eyebrow questioningly.

"But... Do we have to? I like it here, it's my home." These words made the woman smile. "And I can learn with you from the books." Anha shook her head.

"You know that I can't teach you everything, nor the books can. Sometimes you need a living teacher and not just one to get all of the knowledge and wisdom you might need..." She paused, before using another argument: "And I've heard that Hogwarts has one of the best magical libraries in Europe. The chance to study the books there isn't something that should be dismissed this easily. I myself too would like to have a peek at the knowledge stored there." Harry nodded, silently telling his guardian that he will think about this.

**~/ *** \~**

Two weeks later Harry found himself sitting in the pub called 'Leaky Cauldron' in London downtown as he and his mentor were having their breakfast before venturing into the local shopping district for the things Harry would need during his school year at Hogwarts: yes, Anha managed to convince him to accept the invitation to this school above all others that he had received in the recent days.

"Still, did we really have to come all the way here? Osaka Academy of Magical Arts looked like a great place. This one looks like something taken right out of the middle ages." Yet, Harry wasn't exactly happy with having to integrate into the society that appeared to be stuck in a Victorian epoch.

"That may look like it, but you shan't judge the things by their appearance. Hogwarts indeed possesses one of the greatest magical libraries in this semi-sphere, and yet, should it prove to be what you fear it is, we still can have you transferred to Osaka's academy after this school year ends." The green-eyed young wizard nodded, agreeing with his mentor. "Now, if you are done with your meal, we shall venture into Diagon Alley for your school supplies." Anha said then. Nodding again, Harry did his best to finish his breakfast as fast as he could while still using proper manners.

**~/ *** \~**

Morning of September the 1st, 1991 found one Harry Potter walking with a crow perched on his left shoulder along the Hogwarts express in search for a place where he could sit undisturbed and have some enlightening reading... Apparently though, he had arrived quite late as it seemed that a good deal of the cars already had at least one person in each of its compartments. In the end, though, the green-eyed wizard found an empty compartment for himself and wasted no time in occupying it, while also silently thanking Anha for sealing all of his things away for him – he was not yet at the level where he could try and do complex containment seals on his own.

Unfortunately for Harry, his peaceful reading didn't last long and not even five minutes after the train had left the platform 9¾, a red-haired boy entered his compartment and proceeded to claim to be his best mate, blah, blah, blah... The young Potter replied with a silence and a penetrating gaze that could make almost anyone uneasy. The redhead was no exception and after about ten seconds made a right decision of leaving Harry the hell alone, though he still could have had slid the compartment door closed after he had left...

The peaceful solitude for Harry lasted barely ten minutes after the redhead's leave as another boy decided that he didn't need as much as a knock on the door, forget and invitation, to enter the compartment the Potter heir was occupying. This boy had blond hair and an overall appearance of a spoiled brat from the extremely wealthy family. And once the said boy, whose name turned to be Draco Malfoy, had opened his mouth, Harry also learned that he was a racist blood-supremacist. So, the green-eyed young wizard had no problems with showing him out of the compartment, even if Draco's two goons didn't really agree with their boss being kicked out...

For the next half an hour the young Potter heir was allowed to have some peaceful reading, but after that his compartment was invaded once again. This time it was a bushy-haired witch, almost definitely raised in the non-magical world, who was asking, whether he had seen someone's pet toad or not. He told her that he haven't and everything might have ended here, but then the witch noticed the crow that was still perched on Harry's shoulder.

"You know, you're not allowed to bring anything but an owl or a cat or a toad as your pet, right?" The bushy-haired witch asked him as she, consciously or not, invaded his personal space to a great degree. Gently pushing the intrusive witch away, the green-eyed wizard straightened himself, before replying.

"It was not explicitly forbidden to bring other animals, and even then, she's not a pet, she's my familiar and more." Harry said, while gently stroking the crow's feathers.

"But..." The bushy-haired witch tried to object, but was met witch such a glare from the Potter heir that she couldn't help but 'retreat'. "Alright, but if you into problems for this, I've warned you!" And with those words she went away, likely to continue searching for that toad... Thankfully for the green-eyed wizard, after her visit, only a lady that sold various sweets had disturbed him for the rest of the train ride.

* * *

Once the train arrived to the train station in a village called Hogsmeade, the first year students were collected for the traditional boat ride to the castle by the Hogwarts gamekeeper, who appeared to have some giant blood in him, while the older student rode there on the carriages that appeared to move on their own... The boat ride went without any major incidents (aside from some boy finally finding his toad) and soon young Harry, who still the crow perched on his shoulder, found himself waiting with the rest of his yearmates for the sorting ceremony to begin.

After having to listed to a talking hat of all things sing a song, the deputy headmistress started calling the names of the first-year students. These students had to put the sorting hat on their heads and the hat would say to which of the four Hogwarts houses they'd go... After about two dozens of other students, it was finally Harry's turn to try the hat.

"There is only one place, where I can put a growing scholar like you, young Potter, and it is the great house of **Ravenclaw**!" The talking hat said, shouting the last word for the entire Great hall to hear, barely a second after it touched the young Potter's head. Harry just shrugged and, taking the hat off, went to join his new housemates at the Ravenclaw table.

* * *

Nothing of any real interest had happened during the feast, and after the said feast ended, the firsties were escorted to the Ravenclaw tower by the house prefects. While the common room was 'protected' only by a riddle-talking door knob, seeing that the house was welcoming everyone who values knowledge, Harry thought that this would not be a problem. And the Ravenclaw tower itself.. The young Potter instantly loved it for it was so much like his home – an airy tower with many bookshelves filled with the books containing priceless knowledge it in... Maybe his time here, at Hogwarts, won't be as bad as he thought it would be...

**~/ *** \~**

It was a very early hour, barely after five in the morning, when professor Flitwick, who was the head of the house Ravenclaw, saw some gentle bluish light coming from the house's common room, and he decided to investigate it. The first thing he saw when he stepped through the doors were several spheres of light floating in the air, and while he himself, regretfully, never learned this particular branch of magic, the miniature man instantly recognized them as runic spells. To think that someone who knew those will be among the Hogwarts students... Finally tearing his eyes from the floating balls of gentle light, professor Flitwick started looking for the one who had cast them. And since there were only two people besides him in the common room (and one of those two was sleeping at the moment), the Charms master had no trouble in finding the one who had cast these runic spells.

The caster turned out to be a teenage-looking girl with waist-long silvery hair and red eyes. She was wearing what appeared to be a black-colored sundress with a completely open back, and just that. This girl was reading one of the tomes from the Ravenclaw library, while one Harry Potter was sleeping there with his head in the girl's lap... And professor Flitwick could have dismissed these two as just some night readers, if not for the fact that he had never seen this girl in Hogwarts before. So, drawing his wand, he silently and stealthily approached the unknown witch...

"Tss... My ward is sleeping." The silver-haired girl whispered when the Charms master got close enough to hear her – apparently, she had laid some detection wards around the sofa she and Harry were occupying.

"Your ward?" The miniature man asked, rising his eyebrow. "Who are you, miss?" And after a couple of second of thinking, he added another question: "And how did you get in there?" The unknown girl sighed quietly.

"My name is Anha and as of January 22nd, 1986 I'm official guardian of Harry James Potter." Now that he thought of it, young Harry had mysteriously disappeared from British isles in early January that year, and was never heard of again till this summer. "As for how I got there..." Anha continued. "I was there with my ward the whole evening yesterday." And to make it a bit clearer, she leaned forward and morphed a black feathery wing on her back into existence.

Now, most magicals would have thought that she was a crow animagus or something, professor Flitwick, even if his specializations were Charms and Dueling, knew better: bird animagi could not morph any new appendages, only change their existing ones. So, this girl was something else, and it took the miniature man a couple of seconds to recall what she could be.

"Are you, by any chance,a raven that guards libraries?" He asked. Anha nodded slowly, while the wing disappeared back into nothing but an unblemished skin of her back.

"My kind wasn't referred to as such since the great Alexandria library was burnt,.. At this time, living mostly in the Far East, we're are known as crow tengu. But yes, I'm indeed one of them." The silver-haired girl replied, while shifting into a more comfortable position to seat on the sofa as she returned her attention to the book she was reading, no longer paying her attention to the very surprised by this revelation Charms master.

* * *

**This stub** (as usual) **is free for adoption**, if you follow these rules:  
* Your story must have a real plot and the story must be at least 20 000 words  
* You are free to pair Harry with any girls you like. Harems, while discouraged, are allowed as well  
* You will have to PM me the link for your story  
* Have fun


	37. Harry Potter :: Vacation, vacation

**Harry Potter :: Vacation, Vacation**

* * *

_Just some randomness. Might be inspired by "Cafe" or some of the omakes in Rorschach's Blot's "Odd Ideas", but I'm not sure myself._

_Be warned that__ this stub contains some infidelity! And, maybe, something that counts as not-exactly-human partner as well. In other words, there is some HP/NM/OC 'pairing' here._

* * *

**WARNING**_, this stub **contains** almost **explicit description of sex**, those under 17 are advised not to be pervs and leave now._

* * *

One Harry Potter had almost resigned himself to another very long summer with not-very-well-liked relatives – hell, uncle Vernon was already driving back to Privet Drive – when an idea occurred to the teen: if Sirius Black could be on the run, why he couldn't be too? Well, Harry thought, he had enough money in his trust vault to have a nice and long vacation for a couple of months, before returning back to England for the Quidditch World Cup finals.

"Hey, uncle Vernon." The young Potter said carefully.

"What do you need, boy?" The walrus-like man replied angrily, with his saliva spritzing outta his mouth, from the driver's seat. "If you've forgotten something at your blasted freakish platform that you can say it bye-bye. I'm not driving back there!"

"No, nothing like that, uncle." Harry said then. "I just..." He was interrupted by his uncle, who didn't seem to be in his best mood today.

"Then what do you need, boy?" Vernon asked, mercilessly squashing his desire to punch the brat he had to pick up from the King's Cross today – he didn't want to get into an accident that will damage his new car in any way.

"I just thought that... You don't want me to stay with you this summer, and I don't really want to go back there either. Maybe you can just drop me where... where my people live in London, and I'll be by myself this summer? Who knows, that Black fellow might even find and kill me, who knows..." Now, this was something that brightened Vernon's mood considerably, and he wasn't going to miss a chance to get rid of his unnatural nephew for the summer, even if he had to drive him to the other side of London for this.

"Where does your kind live?" The walrus-like man asked.

"Charing Cross Road. And if you can, it'd be great if you could drop me there... If not, then..." Harry was once again interrupted by his uncle.

"No, if it means that you won't be bothering us with your freakishness this whole summer, then I don't have anything against giving you a lift there. And it's too far from there anyway." Vernon said, before pausing to think up a threat, should his unnatural nephew bother him this summer any more after this.

"Don't worry, uncle, I won't be returning to your house this summer willingly." Harry quickly assured his uncle.

"Then, I think, we're good." Vernon replied. "Now, where do you want me to drop you?" The green-eyed teen smiled: maybe this summer won't be so bad. His messenger owl Hedwig seemed to be of a similar opinion...

* * *

After leaving his things in a room in the 'Leaky Cauldron', Harry ventured into the Diagon Alley, his first stop, of course, being the Gringotts bank. And once the young wizard got enough gold from his trust vault to last him on a two-months-long vacation and then some, he started looking for a way to have his vacation somewhere away from Britain – sure, there was nothing wrong with UK, but Harry decided that he wanted to explore the world a bit, now that he had a chance... After some searching he finally found a place, where he could buy an international portkey, but, alas, they weren't selling those to anyone underage.

This was where the little Marauder in Harry woke up. A quick trip into the Knockturn alley under his invisibility cloak later the young Potter had two vials with quite restricted potions on him. One of those, once drunk, would give him a five years older body, and it would last until he drank the antidote. Or at least the it was supposed to be like this... For once being cautious, Harry tested the potions on a snake that he summoned to his room in the 'Leaky Cauldron' with a _**serpentsortia**_ spell. It turned out that the bastard that sold him the potions was truthful enough to sell the working brews. Good...

Now looking to be eighteen or so, Harry Potter went to get himself an international portkey and, after some thinking, decided that Crete sounded like a wonderful place to spend his summer. And, maybe because it was among the most popular resorts, the portkey wasn't that expensive... Now, all he needed to get were appropriate clothes and something that would allow him to communicate with locals. At first Harry thought about getting himself just a dictionary, but after seeing an ad for translation spells of whatever new generation, he decided that he should try those out as well...

** ~/ *** \~**

It was official: Harry James Potter really hated portkeys. But, at least, the damned thing did what it was supposed to do and brought him to the wizarding customs of the nice Mediterranean island Crete... Once his wand was registered and he was informed about the rules he had to follow while on the Greek territory, Harry was allowed to wander into the island.

But first things first, and the young green-eyed wizard started looking for a nice inn where he could rent a room for about two months. Much to his surprise, it wasn't as hard as he imagined it to be, though it still took him some time to find a hotel close to enough to the sea that still had some free and not insanely-expensive rooms available... And once the young Potter finally got himself a room to stay in during his vacation, he made himself at home there – it was an early evening already and he just didn't feel like exploring the area tonight... Hey, it was his vacation, so he had his right to be somewhat lazy!

* * *

Meanwhile, Dumbledore, who was finally done with his business at the British Ministry for Magic, returned to his office at Hogwarts and finally checked the devices he used to monitor his most important pawn. And it looked like his pawn decided to play a rebellious teenager this year and ran away from his relatives' care. No, the ancient wizard shook his head, the pawn needed to be returned to #4 Privet Drive as soon as possible, so that the wards around the house could be recharged...

Then, Dumbledore looked at the device that was supposed to track his pawn's location – he needed to know where Harry was in order to bring it back under his relatives' care, after all – and much to his horror, it looked like the device wasn't working at the moment. Maybe the pawn wasn't being a rebellious teenager and, instead, was abducted by the dark forces? Then it was really imperative that his pawn should be found, freed from his captors' clutches, and returned to #4 Privet Drive!

So, Dumbledore immediately sent his summons to the members of his Order of the Phoenix, so that he can task them with finding what dark wizards had captured his pawn, freeing the said pawn, and returning him to his relatives' house... The thought that Harry could simply be out of the tracking device's range just never crossed Dumbledore's mind...

**~/ *** \~**

While the club of the burnt chicken was doing their best to find him in the United Kingdom captured by some dark wizard, Harry Potter was busy visiting the ruins and other interesting places on Crete. He even stopped by the local magical shopping district a couple of times, getting himself some rather unusual books on Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and, despite his strong dislike for this particular subject, he also got a book on Potions.

Eventually, though, the green-eyed wizard grew tired of sightseeing and shopping and decided that it was time for a more passive pastime, such as going to the beach for some swimming in the sea (though he needed to learn how to swim first for that) and some sunbathing. While lying on a towel was definitely not hard at all, for Harry same couldn't be said about swimming. And since he didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of hundreds of people by not being able to do something as simple as that, the young wizard started searching for a more private beach to use for the time being.

* * *

On the second day of his searches, he finally found the place that was almost ideal. Almost, because someone – a girl, judging by the collection of the things that lay on and near her towel – had found this secluded little beach before him. Still, one person was better than hundreds, the young Potter decided, so, being lazy, he just stopped there and didn't go looking for another beach to use for himself. Plus, he thought, it was about one in the afternoon, so, it was quite possible that the girl will be leaving this place soon to have some lunch. So, removing all of his clothes but his swimming trunks, Harry lay down on his towel and decided to try to wait for this girl to leave... If only something could be this simple...

Sure, he had to wait only for about fifteen minutes for the girl to appear, but... The girl appeared to be around eighteen and had unruly and intense-orange hair that stopped just below her shoulders, bright blue eyes, slightly pointed ear, and tanned skin. She had a slender body, that while not really gifted in the bust area – she had modest B-cups at most – looked to be incredibly hot, especially with that tattoo of three diminishing circles, which looked much like octopus' suckers, on her left arm near her shoulder. But this all wouldn't be much of a problem for Harry and his strongly-emerging hormones were it not for the fact that this girl was in the nude...

"Ah... Um..." The young Potter couldn't find any words to say as he stared at the water nymph in front of him, while his face now turned Weasley-red (though, considering how much of his blood was rushing south, it was quite surprising that he didn't pale instead). Likewise, the girl eep'ed and now was staring at him, blushing madly and covering her modesty with her hands... The tense and awkward moment lasted for several unnaturally long seconds, but then the girl, seeing that the boy in front of her was doing his best to keep his eyes on her face, relaxed a bit and continued on her way to where her matting and her things were, actually giving Harry another couple of flashes of her nude body along the way.

"So... Um..." She began unsure as she pulled a pareo out of the heap of her things and tied it around her frame like a sundress. Not that it helped much as the thin and airy material was sticking to her wet body... "You too just wanted a more private place to relax?" The orange-haired girl asked. Harry, not trusting his tongue not to say something inappropriate, just nodded in response. "Guess, then it can't be helped. Let's forget about this, OK?" The young Potter, still Weasley-red in his face, nodded, a bit far too eagerly, which made the orange-haired girl raise her eyebrow: either this guy was incredibly shy, or he was far younger than he wanted to appear and was using some potion or something to pass himself as an adult. Either way, she didn't really mind it all that much – he was cute, especially with those gorgeous green eyes, and, if the tent in his trunks (that he was desperately trying to hide) was any indication, he possessed the equipment to sate her, should they end up doing naughty things with each other. And he definitely would be fun to tease, as her mischievous side added. In other words, if he were to stay there for long enough, it might not be a bad idea to make 'friends' with him. "So..." The girl continued as she walked up to Harry, who was still coming to terms with the fact that he was still alive after having seen a nude female. "I'm Clytie, by the way."

"Harry." The green-eyed wizard replied on autopilot, not even noticing or caring that Clytie sat down on her hunkers quite close to where his lower stomach was.

"Now then, do you want me to give you a hand with your problem?" Clytie asked with a mischievous grin, while nodding towards his still present erection. It took Harry's brain a couple of seconds to process what the girl had asked and the double meaning of her question, but once that happened...

"Wha-? No-no-no!.. I... Um..." The young Potter blurted out, while blushing even deeper shade of red if that was even possible; The orange-haired girl just giggled as she watched his reaction to her teasing...

* * *

Despite how awkward their first meeting was, something akin to a friendship still happened between Harry and Clytie, whom, he leaned, was named after one of the Oceanids; also, she herself was a witch from northern Greece, though she spent pretty much every summer there. Finally the orange-haired minx had shared with him the 'hidden meaning' of the tattoo on her shoulder – she got it in honors of her great grandma, who was a Scylla, so those circles indeed stood for the suckers...

Also, as now his friend, Clytie was gracious enough to try and teach the young Potter how to swim. Sure, it could have been done with less teasing, in his opinion, and she could have been wearing something a bit more covering than the barely decent bikini she chose for him, but, to be honest, Harry felt quite good from having a hot girl show her sexuality off in front of him like that, even if it meant that he had to spend quite some time under the cold showers or something like that with how his aged body reacted to her.

As their friendship progressed, Clytie began dragging Harry around to various evening entertainments. And while at first those were more or less decorous, with time it kinda degraded to the beach disco at the seaside bars. That unveiled another 'problem': as the young Potter soon found out, his orange-haired friend both liked to drink some light (and not-so-light too) alcohol but also got drunk rather quickly. And when Clytie was drunk, the amount of teasing and flirting she inflicted upon him grew all but exponentially... So was there any surprise, when one evening Harry, who too wasn't sober, gave in to her attempts of seducing him?

**~/ *** \~**

Narcissa Malfoy sighed as she started at the glass of fine wine in front of her. For some reason, this year her summer vacation wasn't like she wanted it, not at all... It started when Lucius decided that it was a good time to start teaching Draco the Dark Art, which meant that the two most important men of her life weren't going to leave the manor anytime soon. So, Narcissa was left to go on her vacation alone, but it just didn't feel right for her to be alone.

Still, as her vacation to Crete was already well planned and at very least half paid for, the blond witch couldn't find it in herself to cancel her summer plans, so she had to go there by just herself. But maybe she shouldn't have had? Seeing all those happy couples at the beach or the hotels made her feel even more alone – despite the popular belief, her marriage with Lucius wasn't completely loveless – but what she could do with both her husband and her son stuck all the way back at the Malfoy manor? Narcissa briefly entertained herself with a thought of finding herself some hot guy for a week or two of romance, but then she went back on this idea... So, to kill the resurfacing depression from having to be all alone on this vacation, the blond witch gulped down her glass of wine in somewhat unladylike manner, before asking the barmen for another refill...

About an hour later, much more drunk and much more relaxed Narcissa, was entertaining herself with watching the people – most at least half as drunk as her – trying to dance; sure, to her all those people was barely more than colorful blurs, but watching them was still somewhat funny, especially when they attempted to do things that they weren't up to in their current state of un-soberness... At some point, though, her eyes caught one quite interesting (and more than quite affectionate) couple in the dancing crowd: a very colorful orange-haired girl in her very late teens and a young man who looked like a younger James Potter. And for some reason her eyes became glued to this couple...

A couple of dances later the said couple approached the bar to some refreshments for themselves, picking the two stool near where Narcissa was sitting... The blond witch couldn't recognize either of duo that 'joined' her there, nor they knew who she was, but as they all were in various states of being drunk, the conversation started. From there Narcissa's memories were too hazy for her to remember what followed...

* * *

The first thing that Narcissa noticed when she woke up the next morning was the fact that she wasn't in her bed or even in the hotel where she was renting a room. She was also naked, though there was nothing wrong with that as the blonde slept in the nude whenever the weather allowed that; she was pleasantly-sore down there, but, most importantly, she wasn't alone in the bed...

Swallowing her fears, the blond witch raised her head to see with whom she managed to end in a bed. It turned out, there actually were two other people in the bed with her – the James-look-alike and his girlfriend from yesterday night – and those two too were completely naked. And the orange-haired girl, whose name Narcissa couldn't really recall, was lying in such a position that the activities of the previous night were more that quite obvious... Unconsciously glancing south, the blond witch saw the reason why she felt like she had just had the best fuck of the last decade – whoever this James-look-alike was, he was well-endowed. And his morning wood was all but throbbing against the orange-haired girl's ass-cheek at the moment.

Blushing slightly, Narcissa tried to think of a way to get out of here, before... Looks like the Luck was not on her side, as the girl – whose name the blond witch still couldn't recall – raised her head from her man's chest and looked at her.

"Mm... Shall we give our Harry a very special 'good morning'?" The girl asked playfully, while carefully (not to wake him up too early, apparently) extracting herself from 'Harry's' loose embrace... Meanwhile Narcissa's mind shut down with only one thought playing in it:

'_Harry? I had the best sex I remember with Harry Potter?_' But then even this thought was banished as she felt the orange-haired girl's hand gently pull her south...

**~/ *** \~~/ *** \~~/ *** \~**

**Omake I:**

Of course, Dumbledore and his men – one greasy Potions master especially – were far from happy with Harry when he finally return to England from his vacation, but other than reproving him sternly, there was little that they could do to him, so with Harry staying with Weasleys for the rest of the summer the life quickly returned back to normal ... Well, not completely to normal, but when anything was normal when Harry was involved?

Especially many questions were asked why it looked like he had a huge growth sprout over the summer. The young Potter, knowing well that he'd get another reproving, along with the lecture on why he shouldn't be so irresponsible, should he tell them the truth, just kept his silence, while smiling conspiratorially...

Anyway, the time for the Quidditch World Cup finals came quickly, and Harry, along with all of the Weasley men went there. Somehow they even had a pretty good seats. Aside from the fact that those seats were right next to the Malfoys' and the tension between the two families definitely was going to make the game not as great to watch... But Harry didn't mind that much, nor he paid any attention to Draco's not-so-subtle attempts to make him make fool of himself – the young Potter had his attention on the lady Malfoy, who proved herself to be quite a MILF back when they both were on their respective vacations on Crete.

Then suddenly the blond witch, sensing his eyes on her, looked at him and, recognizing him for the man she had spent more than one night, even if he hed been under the effects of aging potion back then, winked.

"Hey, mate." Ron asked. "Was it just me, or that... that..." He paused to find a right word to describe Narcissa. "That she winked to you?" Harry shook his head, before discretely winking back to the blond hottie.

"No, you must be seeing things, Ron." He then said to his red-haired friend. Hermione who sat next to them and saw and heard everything just shook her head...

**Omake II:**

"Mr. Potter, you were very irresponsible!" Madam Pomfrey said sternly. Dumbledore made her check Harry's health as soon as the young Potter arrived to Hogwarts as the old headmaster had his suspicions that some regulated or even banned potions were somehow involved in Harry's sudden growth sprout. "Those potions weren't supposed to be active for more than a couple of days. And what you did? You didn't drink an antidote for several weeks! Irresponsible! We must do something to revert you back to normal while we still have a chance!"

"Why?" The young Potter asked simply, while recalling the way the Gryffindor chasers and even Hermione, not to mention other hotties at Hogwarts, were eying his new body. He had seen this look quite a few times over his vacation, both from Clytie and even from Narcissa, and, to be honest, he grew to enjoy being in the center of girl's attention...

Madam Pomfrey just sighed: why kids this days had to be so difficult?

* * *

**Adopt this, anyone?** I will set only two requirements for your story, if you decide use this:  
* the pairing for Harry, if any, should be het. And Ginny is NOT advisable as a partner either.  
* You must PM me the link to your story.


	38. Harry Potter :: ladder sights

**Harry Potter :: Why Divination isn't so bad**

_Have you ever wondered, did Harry ever get any perks from acting as gentlemanly as he seemed to? He sure did have those in – or, rather, right before – Divination._

* * *

**Warning**: contains Pervert!Harry

* * *

Contrary to the popular belief, Harry became aware that the girls weren't _icky_ quite early, definitely before the end of his first year at Hogwarts. And, of course, the trio of Gryffindor chasers were to blame for this. After all, it was them, who had introduced still quite impressionable Harry to the world of feminine beauty – a little bit too much alcohol during the celebration of winning the quidditch cup saw to that... Sure, the young Potter wasn't even twelve yet and his body wasn't ready for what his mind had already accepted just yet, but, hurried by the boy's magic, it was sure to catch up there soon...

The second year with the whole Heir of Slytherin mess, though, gave Harry little time to worry about anything else, but the green-eyed wizard still did notice that quite a few girls in his year were beginning to develop some curves that would be quite delightful in the future. The curves that, (un)fortunately were well hidden by the robes that all students at Hogwarts had to wear during the classes. Those things should be banned for the great crime of hiding the girls' beauty!

The third year too didn't start all that well for the young Potter: Sirius Black, the man who was said to Voldemort's right hand, made sure of that by escaping the wizarding prison called Azkaban. But with the dementors stationed around the castle – no matter how unsightly and fear-inducing these monster were – Harry was quite sure that he was more or less safe from the annual attempt at his life, so he allowed himself to relax a bit and to start living. Which included his growing interest in the opposite gender. Sure, he didn't really have a courage to ask a girl he didn't knew really well out, and with Hermione he was afraid of being turned down in favor of some book, but the young Potter still got some bits of more intimate sights of the hotties of Hogwarts. And his second least liked school subject – Divination – was what helped him there.

* * *

"Harry!" Ron called. "We should hurry up and get some good seats before others take'em." Harry, looked at the silvery ladder that the students were supposed to use to get into the Divination classroom. With how close he was standing to the ladder and how tall the ceiling was there, he didn't even need to do much to get a glimpse of girls' legs as the 'ladies' were climbing up...

'_Maybe these uniforms aren't so bad after all..._' The green-eyed wizard thought as he caught a pretty sight of Fay Dunbar's toned legs that were normally hidden under the prudishly-long skirt. Shaking his head to clear it from the perverted thought that wouldn't be of any help to him during the lesson that was about to start, he replied to his friend: "Aren't we supposed to be gentlemen and let girls in first? And aren't we supposed to wait for Hermione?" Unfortunately, Harry's attempt to clear his head of the dirty thoughts failed spectacularly when Daphne Greengrass reached the top of the ladder, giving him a glimpse of her own long and pretty legs.

"Dunno..." Ron replied, absolutely not noticing, where his friend was looking at at the moment... He paused for a couple of seconds. "I think I will go get a nice place to sit. And if you insist on staying down there waiting for Hermione, I'll get you two seats as well."

"Do as you wish." The young Potter replied, paying more attention to what he could see underneath Lilith Moon's skirt... Shrugging and still not catching on what his best mate was doing, the youngest Weasley son started climbing the ladder, to which Harry responded by looking at the corridor, waiting for Hermione to join them for the class... Finally, when there were only just a few students left down there, outside the Divination classroom, Hermione appeared, her breath slightly heavy as if she had run quite some distance to get there on time.

"Ladies first." The young Potter said to the bushy-haired witch, while gesturing to the ladder. Hermione smiled at him.

"Thank you, Harry. You're such a gentleman." She said before starting to climb the ladder. Harry just shrugged in response to her words and, once there was enough space for him, started climbing the ladder as well, his eyes firmly on her firm delicious butt and her pink Hello Kitty panties...

* * *

**If you have any ideas how to turn this into a full-sized story, feel free to adopt the idea.** I only ask for these two things from you:  
* Harry must have only female partners. In other words, no slash  
* You must PM me the link yo your story.


	39. Naruto :: Unsealed heroes of the past

**Naruto :: Unsealed heroes of the past**

* * *

Everybody in the Elemental Nations knows about Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. These two were the strongest ninja of their epoch and, likely, stood among the strongest shinobi to be ever born. And it was them who started the era of Hidden Villages by founding Konohagakure no Sato. A little less know than those two is Tobirama Senju – Hashirama's younger brother – while Madara's own brother, Izuna, is even less known among the general public...

And no matter how unfair it is, these four are pretty much the only Senju and Uchiha from the time of Clan Wars, who are still remembered for the great skills they possessed. But, surely, there were others from these two clans that deserve to be known as well, even if they were not as good as either of those four legends.

Among those who deserved recognition was Funu Uchiha. She was a slightly older second cousin of Madara. Sure, she wasn't as strong as him, nor did she even possess mangekyo sharingan, but she still was a powerful kunoichi, capable of fighting all but the strongest shinobi out there at least on the equal ground. Among other things, this was the reason why she was the Uchiha clan's scout: the elders were sure that no matter what opposition she faced, she'd return back with the information the clan needed...

Another kunoichi, whose name was unfairly forgotten, is Senju Yui. Well, Uzumaki-Senju Yui, as hermother was from that clan. While she wasn't exactly the strongest fighter for her Uzumaki blood was stronger than the Senju one, she still was a valuable member of her clan because of her mastery over combat seals. Still, most commonly, Yui just prepared the future battlefields for her clansmen with her seal-based traps and did some support from behind the front-line, rarely if ever ending up in a direct fight with the enemy.

Of course, there were other great ninja as well, but this story isn't about them...

* * *

Senju Yui pushed herself off the ground, her eyes locked on her opponent, Uchiha Funu, who was advancing towards her with her twin two-pronged fork-like short swords in her hands. Swearing in her mind about her mission to check the traps on the coast neat Wave country going so terribly wrong, Yui readied herself to unleash a fuuinjutsu that was commonly dubbed as 'sarcophagus of time' among her mother's clansmen. Kuonrogoku no fuuin, as was it's proper name, was a sealing technique that performed a reversible sealing of both the caster and the target into some object.

It was kind of a last resort jutsu, but with how she was outmatched against her opponent, the Senju girl thought that using it now was alright – she'd be killed otherwise as Uchiha Funu was not someone whom she could take on in a direct combat... Just as her opponent was about to deal her a fatal wound, Yui completed the seal and activated it. A moment later two kunoichi disappeared in a flash of reddish light, while a rather complex sealing array could now be seen on the boulder they both had been on top of.

**~/ *** \~**

It was almost a century since that battle, which remained unknown to the history, and the world had changed a lot around the boulder in which two fighting kunoichi were sealed. Most noticeably, a small fishing village that was nearby grew into quite a town that stood on one of the main trading roots between the mainland of Elemental Nations and the Wave country. For years this trading route was powered by many ships that docked in the nearby harbor, but after the recent events, a huge bridge has more or less replaced those.

And right now Tazuna, the creator of the said bridge, was surveying the damage that the terrible storm two days ago had done to his creation... It appeared that the giant waves had eroded the foundation of the bridge somewhat. While it was in no immediate danger at the moment, if nothing was done, the next storm like this was likely to destroy it. So, Tazuna decided that the bridge's foundations should be repaired as soon as possible, while also infix-ed with some boulders to keep the whole thing steady.

Still, even if hundreds of men worked on fixing the bridge, with how big and heavy the boulders were, moving them took time. And, surely, this work was quite boring and monotonous... At least it was like that until on the third day of repairs one of the groups discovered a complex seal written on the boulder they were supposed to move. But as all of the workers were civilians, no one knew what exactly this seal was, and the team was directed to work on some other boulder, while Tazuna sent a message to Konoha, requesting someone who could inspect the seal.

* * *

"Say, Ero-sennin, why are we suddenly heading to the Wave country?" Fifteen years old Uzumaki Naruto asked as he looked up at his sensei, Jiraya of the sannin. "Not that I'm not happy with a chance to see my friends there, but weren't you planning on teaching me something in the Bird country next?" Jiraya nodded, while also visibly displaying his annoyance at being called 'perverted hermit' – he was SUPER-perverted after all!

"Tsunade-hime asked me to do some important job there posthaste, and I can't really leave you alone. Knowing you, it won't be even a couple of days before you find yourself in some mess that you can't resolve on your own." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki scowled, but said nothing in response, as the two of them continued on their way towards the Wave country.

* * *

As the two of them were approaching their destination, Naruto noticed that his mentor was grinning. And it was not a perverted grin Jiraya usually had on his face, no, this was a mischievous one, as if he planning prank or something... But the Kyuubi jinchuuriki didn't pay it much mind: he was a better prankster after all – what an old pervert really could do to him in this 'area'? No one can out-prank Uzumaki Naruto!

Since they've arrived to the town in the late evening, the toad sage said that they will only find a room to stay at that night, and will start working the next day. Almost immediately the blond teen proposed that they drop by Tazuna's house, but Jiraya vetoed this, saying that since his job was on the mainland, there was no point in going to the Wave country just for lodging. Naruto pouted at this, but knew that arguing was useless: ero-sennin was just as stubborn as he was and, really, they shouldn't be imposing on the super-bridge-builder's family, even if they weren't likely to spend more than a couple of days there...

The next morning the toad sage practically dragged Naruto out of his bed and then to where the boulder with the suspicious seal was. Once there, the white-haired pervert told his apprentice to go practice his oodama rasengan or something while he was working on the seal. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki wasn't exactly happy with this – he too wanted to do something interesting – but still followed his mentor's order nonetheless.

With Naruto out of the way, Jiraya concentrated on the seal in front of him. It was unlike everything he had seen so far, but he wasn't a seal master for nothing and managed to successfully determine this seal to be a reversible containing one. Unfortunately, this seal also was a blood seal, so only someone at least distantly related to the seal's creator could open it. And the toad sage didn't really knew who had placed this seal there... Or did he? The seal looked to be quite old, old enough to have been placed during the late era of clan wars, actually. And Uzumaki clan, whose specialization happened to be fuuinjustu, was still very powerful back then, so it was possible that this seal was a creation of one of them.

Of course, Jiraya could remove this seal even without being able to open it, but the white-haired man suspected that something quite important was sealed there and destroying it might not be wise. But, he wasn't sure that even Naruto could open this seal: while it all but had 'Uzumaki fuuinjutsu' written on it, no could could be sure that it was indeed placed by a member of the said clan an not just someone who learned it from an Uzumaki. Still, the toad sage decided, they should make a try...

The was another problem with this, though: Sandaime Hokage, whose wishes Jiraya was following, didn't want Naruto to know about his mother and the Uzumaki clan until he was either seventeen or a chuunin. So, the white-haired super-pervert needed his apprentice to try to open this seal without revealing that it was a blood seal to him. Hard, but not impossible, the man decided, while already scheming a way to do just that.

* * *

In the afternoon of the next day, just as Naruto was about to take a break from trying to perfect his oodama rasengan, mostly due to the fact that the just was hurting his hands quite a bit at this stage, he was approached by his mentor.  
"Any progress with the seal, ero-sennin?" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki asked. Jiraya sat on the grass next to him and, after a sigh, answered:

"Well, I was able to identify the seal as one of the more complex containment ones, but I do not know what is sealed in it, nor I think I can remove the seal at this point." Knowing how good the toad sage was with the seals, this meant that this seal was really hard to crack. "But, maybe, I missing something?.." The white-haired super-pervert continued. "Though, maybe I should let you have a look at it? I know I'm good, but neither I am perfect; I may be missing just something. You know enough, I'm sure, to be able to help me there." The blonde looked at his mentor for a couple of long seconds, before nodding: while Jiraya taught him only basic containment seals and some variations of the explosive tags,.. He might really see something that the super-pervert was missing, and be a help in cracking this strange seal.

"Alright, ero-sennin, lead the way." Jiraya grumbled something about disrespectful brats under his breath, but still led his apprentice to where the boulder with the seal was... This seal, indeed, was a very complex one and well beyond anything that his mentor had showed him, but Naruto was still able to identify it as a containment one. And it also looked a bit like one of those blood-lock seals that were commonly used to store very personal belongings or for more secure communication methods.

Looking back, maybe trying to open an unknown blood seal wasn't the smartest thing to do, but Naruto had a habit of doing things without thinking of consequences, so he bit his finger to draw some blood and, pressing it to the seal, channeled some of his chakra into it, fully expecting this to do nothing. So, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was more than just surprised, when the seal glowed red. A moment later there was a flash of reddish light and two unconscious individuals appeared lying around the seal on the boulder.

Both these individuals were girls of about eighteen-twenty years old. They both were dressed in battle kimonos that went out of style like fifty years ago, which made both Naruto and Jiraya wonder how long these two have spent sealed away. But this was not the end to the surprised: one of the girl, the one with the strange swords, had Uchiha trademark dark-blue and rather spiky hair, and she also bore the clan's symbol on the back of her battle kimono... Upon closer inspection, the other girl turned out to have Senju clan symbol on her own clothes... Apparently, these two were sealed there even before Konoha was founded, as they appeared to have been fighting each other to death...

Finally getting over his surprise, Jiraya quickly placed some restraining and chakra-blocking seals on the girls, while taking away all of their weapons, lest they attack him and Naruto once they wake up... As it turned out, his timing was pretty good as not ten minutes after he had finished tying them up to the separate trees as an additional security measure, the Senju girl, the one with reddish-brown mid-back long hair, started waking up. And, unsurprisingly, she freaked out quite a bit when she finally understood the predicament she was in.

"Wha-? Who the hell are you?" She shouted angrily, while struggling against the ropes she was tied with. "What do you want with me? Senju clan will destroy you if you lay even a single finger on me!" The last statement made Jiraya chuckle, which only served to antagonize the bound kunoichi further. "What are you laughing at, you perverted bastard?" The toad sage looked at her narrowly.

"I doubt that Tsunade-hime will kill me for something like this, and I don't know about any other Senju still alive." Ignoring girl's reaction to his words for the moment, he added: "And I'm not a pervert. I'm super-pervert!" This earned him a kick to his ass from Naruto.

"Shut up, you old lecher!" Jiraya mumbled something about the young not showing respect to their teachers anymore in return, but, apparently, no one paid attention to this. Meanwhile, Yui finally overcome her shock from hearing about what had apparently happened to her father's clan.

"What do you mean 'no other Senju still alive'?" She asked quite loudly. Naruto just rubbed the back of his head – history never was his strongest subject at the academy. His self-proclaimed super-pervert of a mentor, on the other hand, had a question of his own to ask the Senju girl.

"And what year, according to it'd be, miss?" The question surprised Yui so much that she answered without even thinking about it:

"Six hundreds and fifty third." If not for the situation, she might have found the blond teen's reaction to this to be funny, but...

"Well, that kinda explains it. It's Seven hundreds and forty ninth right now." Jiraya said, and now Yui had a reaction quite similar to that Naruto had displayed moments ago. "Quite a few things can change in a century..." He was about to say something more, but got interrupted by the Senju girl.

"Does this mean that these Uchiha bastards have won?" She almost shouted.

"Shut up, bitch." Came a response from the other unsealed girl, who too, apparently, was awake now. "My head hurts like hell and your shouting doesn't help it any!" The white-haired toad sage just sighed as he rubbed his temples – he too was developing a headache with this whole mess... Naruto just looked between the two girls...

"Well..." Jiraya continued. "Considering that, until today, there were only two of them known to be still alive, and one of them wants to kill the other..." The girls looked at each other. Sure, they were sworn enemies, but now that they were pretty much the only ones left from their clans... they could relate to each other a bit... Speaking of the great clans of the 'past', Yui wanted to know what happened to the one that was the other half of her heritage:

"And... What had happened to the Uzumaki clan?" She asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"What Uzumaki clan?" Naruto shouted. "There isn't any Uzumaki clan! I..." He was shut up by the glare the Senju girl was giving him – apparently, what he had said wasn't something she liked.

"Listen here, brat." She hissed. "I'm half-Uzumaki, and so I belong to this great clan as well. Now tell me what had happened to it." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki looked up at his mentor, who appeared to be deep in his thoughts.

"Guess, the proverbial cat is out of the bag..." Jiraya said. "No, Naruto, Uzumaki clan really existed, but it was wiped out during the Second Great shinobi war, which would be about thirty years ago." The white-haired man sighed. "There actually might be some survivors left, but I know none, aside from you. And your mother, Naruto." The blond looked at him in shock: apparently, he wasn't some clanless bastard like he was told by his academy teachers and classmates for as long as he could remember... Yui really wanted to be angry with her fellow Uzumaki-halfblood, but, apparently, it wasn't his fault that he doesn't know about his heritage... She sighed. Future was so fucked up...

* * *

Eventually, once the most important things were explained to the unsealed girls and they both swore not to cause too much trouble, Jiraya untied them and released the restraining seals he had placed on them, but kept the chakra-suppressors active. Nor did he return them their weapons, even if he suspected that both kunoichi had more sealed on their bodies with blood-lock seals... Of course, neither of the two girls was happy with this, but with their chakra sealed away, there really wasn't much they could do about it: they even couldn't run away as they were right now...

For the rest of the day Funu and Yui were putting as much distance between each other as Jiraya was allowing them to. And the night when the toad sage all but forced them to sleep in the same tent – thankfully, the old lecher was clever enough not to do that, but the unsealed duo had to spent the night in a proximity that didn't sit all that well with them... So, when in the morning next day Funu willingly and peacefully approached Yui, she was more than just surprised.

"Senju, seeing the circumstances we find ourselves in, as much as I loath to do this, I propose a truce for the time being." The blue-haired girl paused for a few seconds, before adding: "Also, apparently, it's now up to us to ensure that our clans continue existing, so..." She made another pause, not really sure what she should say next. Yui kept looking at her for several very long moments, before finally nodding.

"Truce accepted, Uchiha."

**~/ *** \~**

Needless to say, Tsunade was quite surprised, when she received a report from Jiraya regarding the 'seal on the boulder' situation. Apparently, she no longer was the last Senju, and there also now was another Uchiha alive. The council, without any doubts, would love this, but with how eager those bastards can be, the slug princess needed to make sure that the girls would not be forced into something untoward...

The downside of the two kunoichi being unsealed, though, was Naruto learning about the Uzumaki clan earlier than intended, which in turn caused him to question some other things as well, while also losing some faith in the toad sage – after all until just a couple of days ago he was claiming that he knew nothing about blonde's family. Just like Sarutobi-sensei did.

Still, if this meant that the two of the great clans can be revived within Konoha, some rebelliousness from the Kyuubi jinchuuriki might be worth it. After all, Naruto was well known for his ability to forgive everything... So, Tsunade had no doubts that by the time he, Jiraya and the girls come back to Konoha, he will be back to his usual cheerful I-want-to-be-next-Hokage self...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile, Naruto was facing a moral dilemma that was far harder than he could have thought. The problem itself was this: where did his true loyalties lie? Within Konoha, or within the Uzumaki clan? And the mess of various and not always connected facts that surrounded both didn't help him making his decision either... Still, even if Hidden Leaf hadn't treated him in the best way, it was something more or less known, while Yui was still quite a mystery to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, as was Uzushio, the home village of the Uzumaki clan.

This who dilemma could have been avoided, had the unsealed Senju kunoichi agreed to come to live in Konoha, but for some reason, the brunette was adamant about not setting her foot into the Hidden Leaf village. Well, same could have been said about Funu, but Naruto didn't really care that much about what the Uchiha had on her mind. Even if he, now that she switched to wearing more modern clothes, found her quite attractive as well... No, this wasn't right, Sakura was the only one for him, right? The blond shinobi shook his head: in the recent days his crush on the pinkette was disappearing at an alarming rate, though even he himself wasn't sure that it was a bad thing.

But back to the 'problem' at hand. Yui really had no desire to go to Konoha for whatever reason. And as Senju clan was more or less always on the move – moving from one country that hired them to fight their war to another – they never had any real settlement for themselves, so the only place she could return to was Uzushio, and the fact that the Hidden Wave was razed to the ground didn't seem to stop the Senju girl. It was almost like she knew something that others didn't... But taking in account what she had told him about the Uzumaki clan, this was quite possible. ...And, to be honest, now that he knew half of his ancestry, Naruto himself wanted to see the place where his mother had come from...

* * *

In the following couple of weeks the two Uzumaki were slowing getting closer to each other, bonding mostly over the blonde's training as Yui was giving him a helpful piece of advice here or there. And, despite still having her chakra suppressed, she was teaching him more than the perverted hermit did, something which only made Naruto's desire to follow her to Uzushio, instead of returning to Konoha, grow...

Of course, Funu too didn't disappear anywhere, she just wasn't as outgoing and social. Still, her relationship with the Senju kunoichi had drastically improved and the two now tolerated each other most of the time, instead of being all hostile like it was just after their unsealing. And, while the Uchiha girl was quiet most of the time, she too offered some quite valuable advices to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki from time to time. In between her sharp remarks about the superiority of her clan and about the ninja of the old times being so much stronger and better than the new generation, that is.

And, both kunoichi were subtly trying to get their hold over the blond shinobi – in hopes that he will release the chakra-suppression seals they had on them among other things – and by the looks of it, they might just their 'wish'.  
What was quite surprising, Jiraya, despite his apparently great skills as a spy master, never noticed this. Though, knowing the man and what a big pervert he was, he likely thought that both girls wanted his apprentice for something naughty-naughty... And, since the girls appeared to behave themselves, the white-haired toad sage resumed going out on his 'researches', meaning that now from time to time he left those three out there all by themselves.

* * *

And, another couple of weeks later, when Yui was sure that Naruto was more likely to follow her than to stay there with the 'ero-sennin', the Senju girl made her move. She waited for Jiraya to go out to peep on the girls at the local onsen, before approaching the Kyuubi jinchuuriki.

"Say, Naruto-kun,.." She said as she approached the blond shinobi. He 'mhm'-ed in response as he was quite busy with his latest attempt to in add the tricks he had learned from both her and Funu into some new kind of rasengan. "Why don't we go visit Uzushio?.. I know, it's supposed to be in ruins, but..." She trailed off, not really knowing how to continue – she had never been really good with smooth talking and negotiations.

"But, what about ero-sennin? I don't think he will be really happy if we just leave." The blonde replied as he took a break from his training. Yui shook her head.

"And do you really think that he'll let us go there anytime soon? That old geezer is dead set on us following whatever traveling plan his brain had cooked up." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki thought about it for several seconds, before finally deciding that he just couldn't miss a chance to visit his mother's homeland.

"Alright." He finally said with a deep sigh.

"Thank you." Yui replied. After a short pause she continued. "But for us to get there safely, I'll need to have access to my chakra. Mind helping me there?" Naruto looked at her like she had grown a second head.

"B-but... I don't know that much about the seals. And..." The Senju girl shook her head.

"Don't worry about that. I'm a seal master – I know how to break this suppressor. You'll just have to follow my instructions." After a couple of seconds the blond shinobi nodded and went to his tent for his brush and his ink-well. From there, following Yui's instructions, Naruto drew the counter-seal and activated it, effectively dissolving both the chakra-suppressor and the tracking seals... Just as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was ready to go pack his things, Funu appeared next to them.

"You two are leaving already, aren't you?" She asked, making it all clear that she wanted something from them. The brown-haired seal-mistress looked at her sharply, as if trying to read what the Uchiha girl had on her mind.

"And what is it to you?" Yui finally asked.

"I know that we're aren't on the best terms,.." Funu started diplomatically. "But are you really going to leave me alone with that perverted man with my chakra sealed? I can't even run away from him like this." Her words had the desired effect on the Senju kunoichi and now she had Naruto working on releasing these seals as well... Once he was done there, Yui told him to go pack, and do it quickly as they likely didn't have much time before Jiraya's return.

"Ready?" The brown-haired kunoichi asked once the Kyuubi jinchuuriki had all of his possessions sealed away into a scroll. He nodded. "Well, let's go then." They were on their way for just a couple of minutes, when Yui finally had enough of the other girl following them. "What do you need now?" She asked Funu, who joined them in the clearing a second later. "Stop shadowing us."

"Well..." The bluenette said. "Like Senju, Uchiha too were always on the move... I have nowhere to go, and I'm not going to this Konoha village. So I might as well just go to Uzushio with you – you two aren't that bad, after all." Naruto just shrugged at this, but Yui wasn't as easy: the brown-haired girl studied Funu for any signs of her planning anything untoward. Finally, not finding anything, she said with a sigh.

"Alright. But try something, and I will destroy you." This made the Uchiha chuckle.

"Last time we fought, I was winning. Or do I have some problems with my memory?" Yui hissed angrily in response:  
"Never underestimate the home advantage that the village of seal masters can give." And not waiting for a response from the bluenette, she continued on her way towards Uzushio, Naruto following her closely behind... Shrugging, Funu followed the two.


	40. Naruto :: Third time is a charm

**Naruto :: Third time is a charm**

Alright, this stub contains some OC, two of which are a part of Konoha's minor clans. Before anybody says something like 'they weren't in canon, they shouldn't be there either', let me remind you that 5 major hidden villages together have ~80 000 shinobi. Thus, Konoha alone has roughly 16 000 active-duty ninja. And at least one tenth of those are from clans. There are 10 known clans in the village (I'm still counting Senju and Uchiha there), so each clan has an average of 160 members at very least. This means that there are at least two clan members of any given age, and my OC happen to be a year older than the canon rookie-nine.

* * *

"What technique are they asking for?" This and many similar questions were asked to Shino Aburame as the stoic boy exited the room where the ninjutsu portion of the genin exams was held with a brand new hitae-ate tied around his forehead. The class quieted down for a moment when the next student was called for the final part of his genin exam, but then the questions continued... The heir of the Aburame clan, though, didn't answer until he was back to his usual seat. And once he was there, he said just three words:

"Henge no jutsu." Somewhere in the back corner of the classroom one Naruto Uzumaki had to hold himself back from jumping into the air, cheering – this was the third time he was taking this exam, and he was afraid that he will be asked to perform those damned clones again... But it looked like they were right and the third time was a charm: his henge was alright, so Iruka-sensei will have no choice but to pass him this time! Now he just had to wait for his turn to show the sensei how awesome he really was, even if he still couldn't perform those supposedly really easy clones...

Finally, a little more than an hour later, Sasuke Uchiha – that damn brooding prick – rejoined the rest of the graduating class with his hitae-ate on his head. And this could mean one thing... Iruka-sensei peeked into the classroom and called:

"Uzumaki Naruto, you're next!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki – even if he didn't knew this yet – got out of his seat and headed to the room where the ninjutsu portion of the exam were held, doing his best to ignore his classmates calling him the dead-last or asking, whether he was planning to fail the exam again... Once the door behind Naruto closed, Iruka-sensei said as gave the blonde several photos of some random Konoha chuunin: "You have one minute to study this man. Then you are to transform into him."

"OK, Iruka-sensei." Naruto replied. Of course, his prankster side wanted him to do something completely wild instead of what he was asked to, but his desire to finally graduate outweighed this, and so he carefully studied the man he was to henge into.

"Your time is up, Naruto. Give me the photos and do the transformation." Iruka said a minute later. Nodding, the blonde passed him the photos and made the appropriate handseal:

"Henge no jutsu!" Once the small clouds of white smoke dissipated, in place of Naruto there stood an almost perfect replica of the random chuunin he was asked to transform into... Iruka-sensei studied the henge'd boy from all sides, before finally saying his verdict.

"You pass, Naruto. You can now release the technique." Mizuki-sensei, who too was present in the room scowled – did he want to fail me, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki thought – but had to agree with this. Meanwhile, the scarred chuunin continued: "You can now pick you hitae-ate." He said, while gesturing to the table, where the headbands lay. There were just two of those left, and none of them had any orange, so Naruto had to settle for a black one... Plus, he thought, this was a sign that he finally became a ninja, which was cool without it needing to be of his favorite color.

"Thank you, sensei!" The blonde almost shouted, once his hitae-ate was securely tied around his forehead. Iruka just nodded tiredly, before dismissing the boy.

* * *

The next morning, as we was submitting his ninja registration forms to the old man Hokage, Naruto heard some chuunin gossiping about some academy graduate, who was caught sneaking into the vaults where various jutsu scrolls were stored, but instead of being severely punished, or maybe even sent to a jail, for this, the boy apparently ended up with significant 'thank you' for exposing the traitor in the village... Dismissing this as a meaningless gossip – after all, Naruto thought, who would believe that someone other than him, could do something as heroic as saving the village from some evil bastard!

But when the blonde entered the academy classroom for his placement, he found his classmate and the new dobe – with how impressive his henge was, Naruto managed to raise from the position of the dead-last – Kiba Inuzuka surrounded by a small crowd of other graduates as he was telling them so obviously far-fetched story of his supposedly heroic deeds. Like he could have done any!..

Somehow, the young Uzumaki managed to remain unnoticed as he got to his usual seat, and since he had developed quite a headache from this whole official mambo-jumbo he had to go through to get registered as a ninja, he felt no particular desire to interfere with whatever nonsense the dog boy was dishing out to everyone who wanted to listen... And by the time Kiba noticed him, Iruka was already telling the class to quiet down as he was about to announce the teams.

Naruto only half-listened to his sensei reading the list of the teams, as he was waiting for his name to be called. Of course, he sad that Sakura-chan got placed on a different team, but he was also happy that neither Sasuke nor Kiba will be his teammates...

"...And team ten will be Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji. Your jounin-sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi." The scarred chuunin finished reading the list.

"But what about me, sensei?" Naruto cried out. "Don't I get a team?" The whole class laughed at blonde's apparent misfortune.

"Looks like they still decided that you aren't good enough to be a shinobi." Kiba added. "From this day on you can call me genin-sama, Uzumaki... Ouch!" The dog boy cried out as a piece of chalk hit him painfully on his forehead.

"That was very rude of you, Kiba." Iruka-sensei said as he sent the young Inuzuka a glare that made it clear that he was far from happy with him. "And you better apologize to Naruto right now."

"Alright, alright, sensei." Kiba, who magically lost all of his brashness under his sensei's glare, said. "Sorry, Uzumaki." He 'apologized', but it was clear to everyone that the Inuzuka heir was not at all sorry for what he had said earlier... Iruka rubbed the bridge of his nose, before continuing:

"As I was about to say when I was so rudely interrupted." Cue a glare at the whiskered blonde. "This year we had one graduate too many to give you all a team made from your classmates, so Uzumaki Naruto will be added to a team from the previous year that recently lost one of their members." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki sighed as, apparently, he will have the teammates that he didn't knew anything about. And his new teammates will be so much better than him... Oh, well, he decided, he will overcome this difficulty like did overcome anything else. "Your team will be waiting for you in the Konoha's central park near the fountain at two in the afternoon, Naruto, so don't be late."

"Alright, sensei!" The blonde replied, before looking at the clock: he had almost an hour before he was to meet with his team. Just enough for him to have a quick lunch at Ichiraku's.

"Now then, if nobody has any questions, you are dismissed." Iruka-sensei said, before walking out of the classroom. Naruto left the classroom soon after that.

**~/ *** \~**

Ringo Akanashi was a civilian-born jounin in his early fifties, who had graduated the same year with the famous (or infamous) sannin. Of course, he never became as great as either of those three legends, but he was a man of solid basics, which made him quite a dangerous fighter. And he also was one of the best jounin-sensei Konoha had ever had: after all he had already trained four teams till they all became jounin themselves, and he was hoping to do the same with his current team as well, before finally retiring from the shinobi corps.

Unfortunately, a little more than a month ago one of his genin fell from some nasty infection he got from somewhere, and the medics at the Konoha hospital said that it will take the boy at least a year, and likely more, before he'd be back to the level he was at... And as much as Ringo-sensei didn't want to leave his student behind, Mahiru – that was the unfortunate boy's name – himself insisted that he didn't want to hold his team back... So, in the end, Ringo ended up with a team one member short.

And as the graduation form the academy was so close, he put a request with the Hokage for a student from the new batch to fill the spot. And Sarutobi agreed, though, the Sandaime-sama didn't say whom he will get until after the graduation exams took place.

So, now, Ringo found himself with one Uzumaki Naruto on his hands. According to the boy's file, he was an utter failure when it came to ninja arts, but the jounin didn't let this discourage him just yet: after all, Jiraya of the sannin too was a dead-last in the academy... And look at what that white-haired gaki grew into!

**~/ *** \~**

When Naruto approached the fountain in the Konoha's central park, he saw three ninja sitting there on one of the benches. And just like the Kyuubi jinchuuriki had assumed (correctly), they were his new team. Of course, the most noticeable of the three was the man,who was the jounin-sensei of this team. He was a man slightly over six feet tall, which along with his very muscular build made him quite an intimidating figure. Well, that would be so, if it wasn't in the man's eyes that he was actually a rather nice person... He was dressed into a standard jounin uniform and had short brown hair that were starting to show first signs of grizzling, just like his short goatee beard did.

Having gotten his first impression of the jounin he will be studying under in the foreseeable future, Naruto switched his attention to his new teammates: they both were girls – a year or so older than him – and he wasn't sure what to think of this. Well, if they were nice enough, then he saw no problem with this, but should they turn out to be that prick Sasuke's fan-girls, the young Uzumaki wasn't sure he'll survive even a week with them...

Anyway, one of the girls had light-blonde hair that were arranged into a ponytail but still reached her shoulder blades. The girl also wore a purple flower-shaped clasp pin near her left ear. She had teal eyes and her clothes consisted of blue standard shinobi sandals, maroon knee-long shorts with a belt on which there were several pouches as well as holsters with two dagger-sized knives, a khaki T-shirt and a couple of fingerless gloves with metal plates on the backs of hands...

The other girl wore shades, so it was impossible to say what color her eyes were, but she had dark-brown, almost black hair that fell straight down her back, disappearing under her dark-gray jacket with long and wide sleeves and a hood that was off at the moment. She also wore pants of the same dark-gray color and black standard shinobi sandals... But despite her rather dark appearance, she had a pleasant, even if slightly devoid of real emotions, face. And she was rather patiently listening to what her blond teammate was trying to say her so animatedly...

"Are you going to stand there all day, or will you finally introduce yourself, Uzumaki-san?" A voice said to the left from Naruto, and turning around the Kyuubi jinchuuriki saw his new jounin-sensei standing there. A quick look to the bench confirmed that the man was the real one. Damn, he didn't even sense the jounin moving, the blond boy thought...

"O-OK." He stammered out, before rather slowly approaching his new teammates, who stopped talking and now had their whole attention focused on him. "Hi, I'm Naruto Uzumaki." The blond girl giggled, causing already nervous Naruto to forget what he wanted to say next... But, thankfully, the jounin came to help:

"Well, that's a start." He said kindheartedly. "But then again, maybe I should have given you an example?" The newly-graduated genin nodded eagerly. "Alright, I'm Ringo Akanashi, jounin of Konohagakure no Sato. I don't have any particular dislikes and I like it when things go the way we want them to among other things. And my goal is to see you all become good jounin of Konoha, like it was with my past four teams." Ringo-sensei said, before nodding for Naruto to try again.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, genin of Konoha. I like ramen, old man Hokage and some other things and I dislike..." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki paused here, somehow feeling that he shouldn't say about waiting for ramen here. Well, he actually wasn't sure what to say there at all, so he decided to skip this section altogether. "...And I want to become Hokage, 'dattebayo!"

"That's quite an ambition, Naruto-san." The jounin said with a good-natured chuckle. "Now then, Hana, Semiko, why don't you introduce yourselves as well?" The blond girl was the one who spoke first:

"My name's Hana Yamanaka and I've been a genin of Konoha for one year. I like my family, flowers and nature in general and interesting things to learn while I dislike uncalled for violence, backstabbers and doing bring monotonous tasks. And I want to become a good and well-known kunoichi." Just when Hana finished her introduction, the other kunoichi started talking:

"I'm Semiko Aburame and I too am a genin of Konohagakure no Sato. I like my clan and our insects and playing go. My dislikes are those who harm insects without good cause and my goal is to become a productive member of my clan." The dark-haired girl with shades said. There was a small pause them, after which Ringo-sensei spoke again.

"While I'd like you three have some more time to get to know each other a bit better before we do anything, Hokage-sama wanted me to submit my report tonight, so I'll have to test your skills now instead." The jounin said, before turning to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. "Konoha usually organizes its shinobi in four men cells – a leader and three subordinates or a jounin-sensei and three students – for a reason, Naruto-san: teamwork is a great power and a well-working team can often beat stronger but less organized enemies, like the First Great Shinobi War had shown us. So, even if you have any problems with your teammates now, or will have any in the future, I ask you to put those away for the duration of our missions we take and do your best to help them whenever you can, alright?" Naruto nodded. "OK then, now lets move to the training ground seventeen for your test." Both kunoichi of the team started making handseals, when Ringo-sensei stopped them. "Girls, your teammate doesn't know shunshin yet, so why don't you walk there with the two of us?" Abashed, both Hana and Semiko followed their sensei and their new teammate as those two headed to the training ground on foot...

* * *

Well, Naruto had to begrudgingly admit, his new teammates were several heads above his level when it came to fighting, and they weren't even throwing awesome jutsu left and right – all that he could do during the test that Ringo-sensei gave them was staying out of the girls' way and laying traps for the jounin or distracting him whenever the two kunoichi needed that. And Ringo-sensei himself... Was there even a way to beat this man? And to make it all even worse, Naruto's new teammates weren't all too impressed with the boy's skills either:

"Is **kawarimi** and **henge** all that you can do?" Hana asked. "And what's with this horrendous orange jumpsuit?" Before Naruto could retort about orange being the best color in the world, their jounin-sensei intervened:

"You weren't much better when I first met you a year ago, Hana. Or do I need to tell Inoichi-sama that you have some problems with your memory?" The threat made that blond girl look at the jounin with some fear – apparently her clan head could be quite fearsome and she didn't want him to get involved. "But she is right, Naruto. Your jumpsuit isn't the best choice of clothes for a ninja. Be it orange if it must, but you still should get something not as bright to wear for the mission outside the village walls." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki nodded, silently thankful that his sensei seemed to have nothing against his favorite color.

"Alright." He said.

"And, also, while Hana might have been a bit too harsh on you, it is true that you have a very long road ahead of you, especially if you want to become Hokage one day. But don't worry, that is why you have a jounin-sensei, and I will do everything within my powers to make you all great ninja." Here Ringo-sensei made a short pause. "Anyway, I'm quite pleased with how you three worked together today, and I hope that this is just the beginning of what you can achieve by being a team." And then he proceeded to make a step by step analysis of the fights during the test, sometimes asking the girls or even Naruto to tell how they could have performed better...

This took them another hour, and by the time they were finished, it was early evening already, so Ringo-sensei, after telling them to meet at this very training ground tomorrow at six in the morning, dismissed his team for that day, before heading to the Hokage tower to submit his report.

**~/ *** \~**

"So, Ringo-san, what can you say about the newest addition to your team?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked, once the greetings were exchanged.

"While I would not deny that the boy skill leave much to be desired, he was still a bit better than I've been expecting, based on what was written in his academy file." The jounin replied. And after receiving a silent request to elaborate, he continued: "As you might know, I had them do my variation of your infamous 'bell test', and Naruto could see that the girls were outclassing him, but instead of still trying to score a direct hit on me, like his academy file made me believe he'd do, he switched to a supporting role, assisting his new teammates as much as he could." The Third Hokage nodded.

"This is something good to hear. And what can you say about his skills?" Ringo thought about this for a couple of seconds, before answering:

"Well, I will not lie: Naruto's taijutsu is abysmal and I can clearly see that he actually taught himself there, but with some hard work, I can teach him some proper goken or similar style. As for his ninjutsu... can't say that it is even worse, but he can do only two techniques properly... And whoever got that bright idea that an Uzumaki, especially the one that is also a jinchuuriki, who hasn't mastered at least the tree-walking exercise can make a normal bunshin should be stabbed with a rusty kunai. The little guy may have wrong hair color, but I can clearly see that he's indeed from that clan." Sarutobi was no fool, and could 'read between the lines'. The man in front of him was saying that he at very least suspected that Naruto was really Kushina's and Minato's son.

"I see..." The aged village leader said. "Am I right that you want to teach Naruto-kun kage bunshin no jutsu?" He asked. Ringo nodded.

"With your permission, Hokage-sama. I, of course, will withhold the memory-transfer aspect of the technique until I'm sure he will not abuse it... too much. Sure, I'd actually prefer some elemental clone, but I don't know Naruto's chakra affinity, and it far too early to start his elemental training to find it out." Hiruzen nodded. "But back to what I have to say about boy's skills... His henge, on the other hand, is something rather interesting: it's tangible, solid actually, so, with your permission, I'd like to try incorporating it into Naruto's fighting style – it's possibilities are far too great to be left unexplored." Another nod from Sarutobi, meaning that he could go ahead with this plan. "And Naruto actually managed to impress me with his traps. Some more experience with those, and he might have actually scratched me."

"I see." The aged village leader said. "And how much time do you think it will take you to bring him to his teammates level? Your team was among those actually desired, before that unfortunate incident befell poor Mahiru-kun." There was a brief pause, before Ringo gave his answer:

"If I get both Hana-chan and Semiko-chan to help me there, I think that in a couple of months Naruto will be ready for C-rank missions. And in another couple of months he will catch up with his teammates' skill level." Sarutobi nodded.

"Thank you, Ringo-san. But now, if you excuse me, I have to finish the paperwork." He nodded towards a pile of documents he was yet to work his way through. "Or I'm afraid that these will start reproducing right there on my table." This made the jounin chuckle: he better not tell Naruto about these horrors, or poor Hiruzen will lose someone actually wanting to take the hat from him.

"Of course, Hokage-sama." He said, before standing up and leaving Hokage's office.


	41. Harry Potter :: Recognition

**Harry Potter :: Recognition**

* * *

It was a hot summer day sometime in the middle of July, and one Harry James Potter – fresh out of his third year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry – was returning back to the number four, Privet drive with the groceries his aunt had him buy. And aside from the chance to leave his relatives' house for a little less than an hour, this day so far was just like any other summer day to the green-eyed wizard.

But that abruptly changed, when he heard a quickly approaching car and people shouting. On pure instincts, honed by three years of playing quidditch, he managed to jump aside at the very last moment, and a red sport car didn't hit him. Still, as the driver was obviously drunk and didn't control the vehicle, it soon collided with a concrete lamppost. Just the amount of the damage that the car sustained made it clear enough that everyone inside it died instantly, and a pool of blood and petrol forming under the wreckage only confirmed that.

Not a minute later the immediate area had a couple of police cars, and the officers, seeing what had happened to the car and the man they had been chasing, were not questioning witnesses about the car crash. And since Harry was a witness too, he was to be questioned as well.

And while the young Potter was answering the questions about the event to the best of his ability, a realization dawned upon him, and it was not a pleasant one, even is everyone made it at some point of their lives. This realization was a very important one, even if it could be written down in just three words: he was mortal. Well, considering what misadventures he had gotten into during his three years and Hogwarts, Harry should have made this realization a bit earlier, but, anyway...

Once his questioning was finished, the policemen let him go, and the green-eyed wizard sped back to the number four in hopes that his aunt would not be overly angry with him for taking so long to complete a simple task of buying groceries.

* * *

"You lazy incompetent useless boy!" Aunt Petunia raged. "Why did it take you almost two hours to buy the damn groceries from the shop just five blocks away? How am I supposed to make the cakes for my Duddykins on time now?!"

"I was questioned by police as a witness of a car crash." Harry replied, his mind still cycling between his near-death experience, and the realization it brought... His words, though, made his aunt calm down a bit. Just a bit.

"I hope you haven't condemned some good man to a sentence, boy." She hissed, glaring at the dark-haired teen in front of her.

"There were no survivors in the car crash." The green-eyed wizard relied in the same absent voice. His aunt sighed and busied herself with filling the fridge with the groceries he brought home. But after a couple of minutes she noticed that he didn't leave to return to his room and, instead, kept standing in the kitchen's doorway. "What do you want?" She asked finally.

"Aunt Petunia." He said after several seconds of silence. "Seeing that car crash today... it made me realize that I too will die sooner or later."

"Of course you will." The woman replied. She wanted to add something nasty as well, partly because she was still angry at him for taking so long with buying the groceries, but for some reason she found herself unable to.

"And now I'm not sure that I will even live to see my own graduation from... from my school." Now, this made Petunia worried. She might not like the boy, but neither did she wish him death, and hearing that he thought he might die within four years... it made her see him truly as her nephew and not as some freeloader that she and Vernon had to feed from their pocket.

"Now, what makes you think that, Harry." The dark-haired wizard didn't even notice that she used his name... There was another uneasy pause, before he replied:

"Every year at... at my school, I come close to dying at least once." He confessed finally. And just from seeing his aunt's expression he knew that she'd ask him to elaborate, so he continued: "During my first year, I got almost killed by a troll..." He didn't get a chance to continue as aunt Petunia interrupted him:

"Troll?" She asked.

"Yes, a troll. Twelve feet tall stupid and stinking brute with a club bigger than I am." Apparently, from the years of being a gossiping housewife, his aunt developed a rather good imagination, or at least her reaction to his description of a troll suggested that. "Anyway, then I almost got tossed from my... my broomstick while seventy feet in the air. And at the end of the year the wraith of the man that killed my parents tried to kill me personally in a body of a teacher it was possessing."

"And your second year?" Aunt Petunia asked almost fearing what she was going to hear in response. Instead of replying with words, Harry tugged his over-sized T-shirt, revealing a scar on his right shoulder.

"This is where a basilisk bit me. And it's a pure miracle that I survived it." Yes, Fawkes appearing just in time to heal him was nothing short of a miracle. Meanwhile, Mrs. Dursley was staring at his scar. She could see that it was made by a single fang, and this fang had to be the size of a small dagger at very least.

"A-And how big this basilisk was?" She wasn't even going to ask what it was – she didn't need any nightmares, featuring unnatural beasts, so the less she knew about those, the better.

"Don't know, I was too busy with other things to measure it." Harry replied. "But if I were to guess... I'd say sixty feet. Maybe even a whole hundred." A snake of at least twenty meters long! What the hell was going on over there? Petunia didn't know and really didn't want to know. But now she was having a feeling that was unfamiliar to her: she wanted to hug her nephew, tell him that those horrors he had faced weren't there anymore...

She squashed this feeling in favor of knowing what Harry had gone through this year. Maybe she shouldn't have had, as she was 'rewarded' with a quick briefing on her nephew's two close encounter with dementors – the name of those monsters alone made her uneasy, and the verbal description didn't make it any better – and a single encounter with a transformed werewolf. Even if Petunia didn't like her sister and did her best to forget everything about her, now she found herself browsing through whatever memories of Lily's impressions about Hogwarts she could recall. And it looked like her sister in all seven years she had spent at that freaky school never had even a single accident close to what Harry seemed to face multiple times a year...

"And now..." The young Potter continued. "...now I don't know whether I will survive even the coming year or not – my luck can't last forever, can it? I need to get better, but..." What he could do to improve his chances of surviving over the summer? Sure, he already decided to follow his friend Hermione in dropping Divination and continuing with Ancient Runes, but it will help him only in the long run... With no right to practice magic over the summer, there was nothing that could help him survive his fourth year at Hogwarts as he was almost sure that something will try to kill him again. His dark musings were interrupted by his aunt's sigh.

"Well, there was that yoga section at Magnolia street ran by Mr. Ling... Mr. Long... Whatever. It's free but you'll need to help that man keep the territory in proper shape. I'm sure I can talk Vernon into letting you off some chores a couple of days a week." Petunia said. "I'm not really sure how this yoga may actually help you, Harry, but at least it should take your mind off your darker thoughts. You know, if you worry too much about something, it may actually happen." The young Potter nodded.  
"Thank you, aunt Petunia." He replied, before heading upstairs: he had a letter to write to professor McGonnagal.

**~/ *** \~**

The yoga section that aunt Petunia had mentioned was indeed ran by Mr. Kim Long. He was a rather short, wiry and almost bald Vietnamese man in his early seventies who often could be seen using a walking stick. But the appearances can be deceiving and Mr. Long could display agility and speed that were rarely seen even in those five times younger.

He also was a fairly good teacher as even after his first session, Harry found that the exercises the man showed him helped him keep his mind off the thoughts about death. And without his dark musings at the forefront of his mind, the world seemed to be a little better for the young Potter...

Of course, at first Vernon strongly objected to Harry being admitted into this section, but once he was explained that it didn't cost him even a single penny, and that it kept his freak of a nephew away from his absolutely normal house for several hours a week, he gave in. Of course, not before telling Harry that he still had his normal chores to do, and should he fail at those, there will be hell to pay. Somehow, though, the young Potter didn't find his uncle to be as scary as he used to be...

**~/ *** \~**

* * *

_The following part is inspired by **Andrew Joshua Talon**'s "**That boy is trouble**" and **Demon-girl15**'s "**Bad boy Harry**", along with some ideas I don't remember who introduced first (to me). That said, rest of this story stub is set for a plot line that you may not want to implement, should you try your hand at continuing this stub. Hence, I ask to treat the rest of this stub as a big omake._

* * *

It now was two weeks since the green-eyed started attending that yoga section. And it looked like his aunt was quite right: he was doubtful that the exercises taught there will really help him survive. But at least those helped him to keep the thoughts about his possibly very soon death at bay, which was far from being a bad thing.

At the moment, though, the young Potter had to concentrate on pulling the weeds from the the single flower bed that was there in the yard Mr. Long asked his student to take care of. The teacher himself was not too far away sweeping the dust drought there from the street away. The other three of his students – apparently, only few preferred manual labor over having their parents pay for them, and Mr. Long refused to teach for money – were doing pretty much the same thing as Harry...

Since it still quite hot even this early evening, the boys were allowed to take their shirts off, and the green-eyed wizard, not wanting to dirty the cast-off he wore, did just that. Normally, this wouldn't matter, but the yard where he was working was surrounded by just a metal fence and something more solid, those on the street could see him. And his – no thanks to his relatives – reputation of a bad boy, coupled with a rather prominent scar the basilisk had given him and the fact that he did have some muscle on him certainly drew some attention to him. And this attention was not a negative one.

* * *

Ophelia Bowman from #16, Lilac lane was a just-turned-fifteen Briton girl that was entering the stage of the teenage rebelliousness, which was a good explanation for her choice of clothes: red sneakers; stripped purple and black over-knee socks; a short jeans skirt that stopped short of six inches above her knees; and a light-gray T-shirt with a graffiti-style writing on it that was unreadable, but looked cool in her eyes. Oh, and there was a multitude of various rosary and other bijouterie on both her wrists.

As for Ophelia herself, she wasn't exceptionally tall, though she wasn't short either, being slightly over five feet two inches at the moment; she had gray eyes and chestnut-colored hair that barely reached her shoulders. Unfortunately or not, while her parents allowed her to wear pretty much anything she wanted – as long as it was decent – they put down their foot on her using any cosmetics other than some pale lipstick... Then again, did she really need to be a painted-up doll to get boys' attention when she had her tomboyish charm?

Anyway, Ophelia was returning home from her outing in the local mall on one of the last days of July following her usual route across the street from the Yoga section's yard, when she spotted a teen with a messy black hair and a scar on his right shoulder working shirtless there...

Since Little Whinging was a small and mostly enclosed community, it was not that hard for the brunette to determine who this boy was: though, she couldn't quite recall his name, she was absolutely positive that he was Dursley's freaky nephew/cousin. And of course, pretty much entire Little Whinging knew that there was no such institution 'St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys', but no one bothered to mention that to the Dursley family as it was always quite entertaining to watch those do some really unnatural things to keep facade of being absolutely normal people... Still, no one really knew where their cousin was spending more than nine months a year, which led to some interesting theories appearing. The most popular being that the boy was being requited by the government, and Dursley didn't want him to outshine their tub of lard of a son.

Thus, being believed to be a good 'bad boy' – though for the perfect image, he'd need to get rid of his lame glasses, get better and fitting clothes and put on some weight to stop looking so skinny (and, maybe, be a couple of years older too) – the young Potter was a blip on the radar of some of the girls in Little Whinging. Far more so than the 'strapping young lad' Dudley...

And, at the moment Ophelia was, well, interested in getting acquainted quite well with the dark-haired green-eyed teen. Even if that most likely combined work of her teenage rebelliousness and her equally teenage hormones. Still, she wasn't stupid and could see that if she approached him directly with what she had in her mind, he was likely to run away or something that would utterly destroy her chances to try him. Instead, the brunette decided to try a slower and more subtle approach...

**~/ *** \~**

It was August the first, and the sun already rather high in the sky beaming with its light onto his face was telling Harry that he had slept in. And as he started returning to the world of conscious, the green-eyed wizard noticed some interesting things. First, he definitely wasn't in his own bed: this one was too big and too soft for that. Second, but more important, he wasn't alone there either. There was a girl in there with him, and they both were quite very naked.

Daring to open his eyes, now fourteen year old Potter heir was greeted with the sight of a girl with short chestnut-brown hair sleeping practically on top of him with her head lying on his chest. Ophelia, he recalled girl's name. His most recent friend, and the only one he had in Little Whinging... Though, considering how fast they went from their 'first meeting' to sleeping together in her bed – even if Ophelia claimed it to be her birthday gift for him – calling her a friend might not be exactly right...

And just the thoughts about the girl's 'gift' were enough to make Harry's already rigid lower wand turn rock hard, something he hardly believed to be possible, if he were to remember the number of times he had used the said 'wand' yesterday night. This was not missed by the brunette on top of him. Stretching deliciously against his body, Ophelia yawned, before looking into his eyes.

"Damn, Harry..." She said in a low sexy whisper. "You're insatiable. I like it." She then gave him a bright smile, while her left hand went south to grip his 'wand', making the dark-haired wizard moan under her ministration.


	42. Harry Potter :: A year too early: remake

OK, I decided that I should make an alternative version to the already posted "A year too early" stub. Most changes are before the end of Harry's second year, but I did my best to bust typos and so some improvements in the whole story.

* * *

**Harry Potter :: A year too early :: alternative version**  
_The touch of Death always alters a human in some way..._

* * *

It was a perfectly normal, sunny and warm morning in the perfectly normal neighborhood of Little Whinging in Surrey. But this perfect normalcy didn't last long when a startled gasp could be heard inside a perfectly normal house number four on the Privet drive. The said gasp was caused by one Petunia Dursley finding a very very abnormal letter in the post that arrived to this house on this no longer fine morning of July 30, 1990.

"Everything alright, Pet?" A very large – but still perfectly normal, thank you – man that was the head of the Dursley family asked as ...waddled down the stairs. "And why the boy is not up? If I don't get my breakfast now, I will be late to my work!" He added then.

"Boy!" The woman shouted. "Get your lazy ass to the kitchen and make a breakfast for your uncle. And be quick about that, or so help me!.." A moment later a small and scrawny boy with unrully dark hair and brilliant-green eyes appeared out of the cupboard under the stairs and sped to the kitchen... Sighing, Petunia turned to her husband and showed him the letter that caused this whole disturbance. "Vernon..." She said quietly. "They promised that we will not hear from them until the boy turns eleven." The large man cast a glance to the kitchen, where the said boy was busy with preparing him his breakfast.

"Maybe those freaks made a mistake?" He asked as took the thick envelope from his wife's hands and inspected it in vain hopes that it would turn out to be some sick joke. Unfortunately, the envelope seemed to be quite real and authentic. "Maybe if we don't reply, they will leave us alone for another year?"

"I... I think that we should reply. And say that the boy will be coming this year, even if the letter was a mistake." Petunia said carefully after a rather long pause. Her husband looked at her strangely, not following her logic.

"And why is that?" Vernon asked.

"Remember what I told you about that freak school?" His wide said. "Once the boy finishes his seventh year, he'll be an adult by the freak's law, so we will be within our rights to kick him out of our house. Imagine it, Vernon, he will be out of our lives a whole year earlier than we've expected!" The large man seemed to finally understand her reasoning.

"But what about?.." Knowing her husband as good as she did, Petunia could predict his question.

"Their headmaster had assured me in his letter that we won't have to pay a single penny for the boy's education in that freak school." She replied. "And he also said that the boy will have to spend only his summer holidays at our house. The rest of the year he will be spending at that freak school away from our little Duddykins."

"I see." He said finally. "Then make sure that the boy answers to this letter, and that he tells those freaks that he wants to study at their freaky school." Petunia just nodded in response as Vernon headed to the kitchen to grab some breakfast the boy had made for him.

**~/ *** \~**

Minerva McGonnagal, the transfiguration professor and the deputy headmistress of the Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry entered the headmaster's office, carrying a parchment with the list of the students that were to start their education this year in her hands. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore – the man with more titles than he could remember himself – looked up at the Scottish witch and nodded, before taking the parchment from her hands and signing it without even reading its contents: the system for admitting students had been working perfectly for centuries, so the old wizard saw no reason to even think that this year something might go wrong.

"Have we received answers to all of the letters sent?" He asked and the transfiguration professor nodded. "Then, starting tomorrow, have the staff begin introducing muggleborn and muggle-raised to the magical world, Minerva." Dumbledore said.

"Of course, Albus." Professor McGonnagal replied, before taking the signed parchment from the headmaster's table and leaving his office: the was very busy, especially during these months, and she didn't dare taking more of his time than was absolutely necessary...

* * *

As this year there were no children coming from the muggle orphanages – those were handled either by the deputy or the headmaster – professor McGonnagal just made her colleagues draw the names of the children they will be introducing to the magical world from her hat. And since she too didn't suspect that the system made an error, she just cut the parchment into pieces without even bothering to read the names that were there.

Professor Flitwick, a short man that quite obviously was a half-goblin, squeaked and fell from his chair when he read the names he drew, but since everybody knew how easy to excite the little man was, no one paid any attention to that. And professor Flitwick was secretly glad for that: this meant that he will have better chances of directing Lily Potter nee Evans' son to becoming one of his 'Claws. Of course, he knew that Harry wasn't supposed to become a Hogwarts student until the next year, but stranger things had been happening, so he decided not to think too much about this.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry Potter just couldn't believe it. Magic was real, and he was going to be attending a school that will teach him how to wield it! What was even better, while the school was in session, he will be living there, which meant that he will have to deal with relatives for just two months a year. And even then, his aunt and uncle decided that he will occupy Dudley's second bedroom from now on. He even had a real bed now! But right now the green-eyed boy was waiting for the arrival of someone from that magical school to take him for a magical shopping – he had never being out shopping before, and, of course, he was greatly excited about this.

Finally, the door bell rang and Harry moved to open the door before his uncle had even thought of ordering him to do that. Anticipating the greatest day of his life so far, the green-eyed boy opened the door and stared. There was no one out there...

"Ahem." A squeaky voice said, and looking down, Harry finally saw the professor that was supposed to guide him into the magical shopping district. The said professor was really short: the top of his head was at least an inch below Harry's chin... At least, the small man was dressed in what could pass as normal clothes, so uncle Vernon's allergy to everything unnatural wasn't making him chase the man away... Or maybe that was because the Dursley patriarch was too busy with watching the financial news on TV now to pay attention to what was happening at the front door... "You're mister Potter, right?" The Hogwarts professor asked, looking up to meet the said boy's eyes. Harry could only nod in response. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Potter. I'm Fillius Flitwick, the Charms professor at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. And I'll be your guide into the magical world today." The little man said excitedly, "Let's get going then, no sense in wasting time." Harry just nodded again. A moment later he was already trying to catch up with the surprisingly fast despite his small statue professor...

* * *

By the time the two of them reached a well-hidden back alley where it'd be safe to do some magic, professor Flitwick managed to give Harry a brief explanation of how Hogwarts was organized. And while the young Potter could see that his guide was making not too subtle attempts to put him on the rails to becoming a member of the Ravenclaw house, he didn't mind that too much: the house of the clever ones didn't sound like a bad place to spend the seven years of his magical education at...

A quick side-along apparation later – not exactly pleasant way of getting around, the green-eyed boy decided, but it was more than quite fast – the two of them were standing in front of a brick wall in the back yard of the 'Leaky Cauldron' pub. Professor Flitwick then tapped several bricks with his wand and the wall reformed itself into an ark that led into the street filled with the magical shops of all kinds.

"Welcome to the Diagon Alley, Mr. Potter." The short man said, before ushering the boy through the arc, which turned back into the wall after he himself passed through it.

Their first stop in the alley, before they entered any of the shops there, was the Gringotts bank, that was ran by sentient magical creatures known as goblins. And a single look at the goblins was enough to make the young Potter suspect that the professor escorting him was not entirely human. But since the boy didn't appear to have any problems with that, the Charms master decided to put the whole thing out of his mind.

By the time it was their turn to talk with the teller, Harry was already more or less over the surprise about the fact that his parents had left him some money. But his surprise returned to its full power several minutes later, when he saw just how much money that was. And the fact that professor Flitwick let it slip that this was just a trust vault and that he will be getting the whole Potter fortune when he reached his majority didn't help the green-eyed boy overcome his surprise at all... Eventually – by the time they were back to the surface – Harry had calmed down enough to be ready for the excitements of his first magical shopping...

* * *

Professor Flitwick insisted that Harry should buy himself a trunk the first thing, and the green-eyed boy could see why: this way, he won't have to carry many parcels with his other purchases around. The Charms master also said, that spending some extra gold on extra security measures would not be a waste of money, so Harry ended up with a three-compartment trunk with expanded insides that could easily store everything he'd ever buy for his magical schooling, and the said trunk also had some enchanted locks, so, the dark-haired young wizard was sure that his new things will be safe during his stay at Dursleys'.

With his trunk – and a good school bag too – bought, professor Flitwick had him go buy his school robes and other clothes he may need, saying that this should be done next as fitting one's clothes often took some time... Indeed, the young Potter spent at least three quarters of an hour in madam Malkin's shop, before he had all of his school clothes ready and packed in his trunk.

Once they left the robes' shop, the Hogwarts Charms master allowed Harry to buy the rest of the things from his list in any order he wanted. So, after visiting shops that sold cauldrons and potion vials, potion ingredients, telescopes, books, quills and parchment and inks, the green-eyed wizard had everything he'd need in Hogwarts, but his wand.

And so, Harry the young Potter found himself in Ollivander's wand shop, where somewhat creepy Mr. Ollivander had him try various wands, made from different woods and with cores coming different magical animals. It took the old wand-maker only about a dozen of tries to find the wand that suited Harry the best. And it was a ten and a quarter inches long juniper wand with a dragon heart-string for the core.

* * *

As professor Flitwick was returning Harry back to the #4, Privet drive, the Charms professor answered some more of the questions the young lad had about wizarding world. And the green-eyed boy was pleased to learn that you could not only have a meal at the 'Leaky Cauldron', but also rent a room there. This meant that is Dursley decided to kick him out of their house, he had a place where he could stay until the school year at Hogwarts starts – he was sure that he had enough gold to rent a room at the pub for the whole summer every year...

Professor Flitwick also advised Harry to study theories from the books over the rest of the summer, so that when the school year starts, he'll be prepared. Finally, the young Potter was given some train tickets and was instructed on how to get to the platform 9¾ where from the 'Hogwarts express' would take him to the school. Other than that, the Charms professor shared some useful bits of knowledge with him, but, on the whole, nothing else of great importance was said.

**~/ *** \~**

In the morning of September the first, using the non-magical money that his relatives had oh-so-graciously given to him, Harry arrived to Kings Cross train station and set out to find the entrance to the magical platform. And following the instructions left to him by professor Flitwick, it took him only a couple of minutes to locate the portal.

And once he stepped through it, he found himself standing on the platform 9¾, which was rather empty at the moment, as there was at least half an hour before the Hogwarts express' departure. The said express was a train of about ten cars, with a crimson-red steam engine at its head. Shrugging at how outdated, compared to the modern diesel and electric trains this steam engine was, Harry set out to find an empty compartment for himself to seat in, which turned out to be not a hard task... So, once he was seated, the young Potter got himself a Potions textbook from his trunk and continued reading it...

For the next half an hour – until it was time for the train to depart – every several minutes some Hogwarts student would peek into Harry's compartment, but seeing an unfriendly 'firstie' with his nose in the book there, they all went away to find themselves a place to sit in some other compartment. Harry didn't mind this much as he didn't feel like having any loud company at the moment. Plus, being alone allowed him to better concentrate on the textbook he was trying to read.

* * *

The young Potter spent the train ride up North with his nose deep in the Potions textbook, hoping that whatever he could memorize from it would be enough to put him in good graces of the school's Potions professor, who, according to professor Flitwick, had rather high standards for his students. Plus, Harry thought, being prepared never hurt...

Somewhere around lunch time, a witch with a trolley full of various magical snacks made her way through the train, and, feeling a bit hungry, the green-eyed boy bought some of those from her. Mostly out of interest what magical – or any for that matter, as he never ate even one while living with Dursley – candies tasted like. Well, he quite enjoyed his little snack... And once he had eaten everything he had bought, he returned to his reading.

Several hours later, when it was already rather dark outside, the train conductor informed everyone that the train will be arriving to the Hogsmeade station in half an hour. Putting his Potions textbook aside, Harry quickly changed into his school uniform – according to the rulebook, he had to be wearing it for all of his classes and all of the important events, like the welcoming feast – before returning to his book for some more reading, hoping to finish the chapter before the train arrives to its destination...

* * *

While it had been rather cloudy back in London when Harry had boarded the Hogwarts express, here in Scotland, he was greeted with clear dark skies with myriads of shining stars. Too bad, he didn't have much time for stargazing as a huge man, who introduced himself as Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper of Hogwarts, told the first year students to follow him, as he himself headed towards the docks where a fleet of small boats was waiting for them.

A trip across the Black lake didn't last long, but everyone still got a fantastic view of the Hogwarts castle during it... Once they all arrived to a dock under the castle, Hagrid led them into a large room, where the deputy headmistress McGonagall gave the soon-to-be-sorted students another speech about Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Then the transfiguration professor told them to be on their best behavior, before she left to complete some last minute preparations for the sorting ceremony.

While she was away, a group of ghosts flew through the room, discussing what they should do with some poltergeist named Pieves. And almost as soon as they disappeared through the wall, professor McGonagall returned and told the first years that it was time for their sorting.

The deputy headmistress led the group of about forty five students – there really weren't many first years this year as magical Britain was still recovering from the war with their latest Dark Lord – to the Great hall, where she introduced the Sorting hat, which then proceeded to sing a poorly composed song, though many seemed to like it... Once the hat stopped singing, professor McGonagall unrolled the parchment she had in her hands and read the first name, thus the sorting ceremony began.

It was quite some time before his name was called, but Harry was rewarded for the wait with a rather funny sight of the headmaster and a couple of professors at the table almost falling out of their chairs from shock. Many students, especially the older ones, had similar reactions... Still, not wanting to make others wait for too much, the young Potter quickly walked up to the stool and sat on it, placing the talking and singing Sorting hat on his head.

As Harry had been introduced to the magical world by professor Flitwick, who, despite trying to imprint the idea that Ravenclaw was the best house into his mind, was mostly impartial, and he was yet to meet anyone who would make him want stay away from house Slytherin, he had no reasons to prevent the hat from sorting him there... Once the hat voiced the results of his sorting and the trims on his robes changed from neutrally-gray to green and silver ones, Harry went to join his new house-mates at the Slytherin table, completely ignoring the fact that not all of them seemed to be welcoming him...

* * *

Meanwhile, as the wizards and witches in the Great hall began recovering from the shock of the Voldemort's vanquisher being sorted into the house of Serpents, at the professors' table two wizards were trying to comprehend what the hell had just happened:

Albus Dumbledore, while doing his best to keep a friendly grandfatherly expression on his face, was thinking hard about how he should salvage the situation with the chosen one: many believed the house Slytherin to be a training camp for the dark wizards. Plus, for some reason Harry showed up a year too early, so none of his tests for the boy were ready. He even had a truly decent professor for DADA this year! Alas, it looked like there was little he could at this point. He'd have to watch the young Harry and do his best to guide him away from the darker elements that filled the Slytherin dungeons...

At the same time, the Hogwarts Potions master Severus Snape too was thinking about Harry Potter. The man had a hard time believing that the son of his greatest Hogwarts nemesis got sorted into his house. And let's not forget that the boy shouldn't have appeared in his life for another year! The shock from the boy's sorting was so great for the man, that for a moment he forgot about his cultivated hate for the boy and so he studied him like he did every other child that came under his care.

And seeing Harry's eyes just once was enough to make professor Snape understand that it was Lily's son in front of him, and the only thing that the boy got from his father was his appearance and his last name. Even more so, he could clearly see that the green-eyed child was not a pampered prince he had expected him to be. No, it was rather obvious that Harry did not have a very happy life. Likely, the boy grew up in an orphanage or with people, who cared little about him. So, Severus Snape decided, he should observe his new ward better, before forming his final opinion about him.

* * *

Once the feast ended, and the headmaster said some more words, which were quite strange and made some of the students wonder, whether the man was sane, the Slytherin prefects led the first years to the house's common room, which was located in the dungeons. And once everyone arrived to the green-themed room, the prefects told that the first years had to stay there and wait for their head of the house to make a speech.

Indeed, a minute later, professor Snape arrived to the common room, his cloak billowing behind him in a dramatic fashion. The potions master measure each of the new 'snakes' with a glance, before beginning his usual speech about the rules he made for the members of the proud and noble house Slytherin. During his speech, the man also noted the reactions of firsties, and, for once, he was quite sure that he got a sensible bunch – meaning less headache from dealing with them.

With the last words of his speech, the Hogwarts resident Potions master sent the first years to their rooms – yes, unlike other houses, Slytherin let all of the students there have small personal rooms – before heading back to his office in hopes of finishing some more of that damned paperwork he had to do as the head of a house...

* * *

After unpacking the things from his trunk, Harry examined the room he had been assigned. While it may appear small to those who grew up in manors, it was slightly bigger than Dudley's second bedroom that the Dursley allowed him to use, and it was huge compared to the cupboard under the stairs where he spent almost nine years of his life.

The room Harry was assigned had a sizable four-poster bed with green covers, a wardrobe and a chest that could fit several times the things the green-eyed wizard owned, a table with a comfortable chair and several big shelves for books and other studying materials. Finally, there was an aged clock on the wall across from the bed, and, apparently, it was a bit past ten in the evening, so the young Slytherin decided that, since tomorrow was the first day of his classes, he should call it a day now.

**~/ *** \~**

While the Boy Who Lived was blissfully asleep, Albus Dumbledore was thinking hard about what should be done now. And, no matter how much it frustrated the aged warlock, he couldn't think of anything really great that would instantly make everything as it was supposed to be, according to his view on the 'Greater Good'.

Still, it didn't mean that he will not be doing anything for now and will let the things develop on their own. Despite what one may think, Dumbledore was well aware of what is called self-fulfilling prophecies. And since the public wasn't likely to take kindly to their 'savior' being sorted into the house of the future dark lords, he needed to do something so that Harry would not fall (completely) into the darkness.

So, Albus decided, this time tampering with someone's mail would be justified, if it would keep the chosen one from going dark. Yes, he decided, he should adjust the castle's wards so that all of the mail addressed to Harry will be delivered elsewhere. Plus, it was not like Harry had any friends that would write him at the moment. And even if he had... Keeping the chosen one from going dark could justify that: it was for the 'Greater Good', after all.

**~/ *** \~**

Next morning during the breakfast, Harry finally noticed that, indeed, the other Slytherins, especially the older ones, were not exactly happy with him being sorted there. Of course, there was no obvious hatred coming from them, even when no one from the other houses could see it, but they were still very cold with the young Potter. And he had no idea what was the reason for this. His morning lessons too didn't help him solve this mystery...

And, it looked like his confusion was rather obvious, as, after the lunch, he was approached by the Carrow twins, Flora and Hestia, if he remembered their names from the Sorting ceremony correctly.

"Potter, we couldn't help but notice that you seem to be confused by what's going on here." One of the girls said, and, to be honest, Harry didn't knew which of the two twins she was. "We're going to help you there a bit, and even without asking anything in return. Just remember that normally information in Slytherin has its price." The green-eyed wizard nodded, giving the witches a sign that he was ready to listen to what they had to say.

"Very well then." The second twin said. "You might have being told that the Dark Lord was from the house Slytherin, as was the majority of his supporters." Harry nodded: the books he had read might have mentioned this fact once or twice. "As you surely can guess, many of the students there are the children of those supporters, and having grown up with the philosophy of their parents, they are not exactly happy with the fact that you – directly or not – had ended the Dark Lord on that Halloween night nine years ago."

"While that maybe true, not everyone here is like that." The first witch continued for her twin sister. "Much like many others, our parents too supported the Dark Lord; our father even died in a fight for the cause. We have never even seen him – we weren't born yet at that time... But we don't blame you for this, nor we blame you for the demise of the Dark Lord..."

"What Hestia is trying to say is..." So now it was Flora speaking, Harry thought. He really needed to find a way to tell the twins apart. "While people there might be cold towards you, no one is going to call for a blood feud or something like this over what definitely wasn't a conscious doing of yours. So, our advice to you, Potter, will be the following: try not to stick out too much with your voiced views and be a productive member of the house, and you will find that the people there will be willing to keep their problems with you to themselves."

"Thank you." The young wizard replied, before continuing on his way to his room, while thinking about what the twins had said to him.

**~/ *** \~**

Even though his Hogwarts years started not in the best possible way, Harry didn't despond. Since there was no Dudley in the castle to prevent him from having friends, the young Potter tried to make some. And since most of his housemates were either too different from him in their believes or wanted to use him for their own gain too much for his tastes, the green-eyed wizard had to start looking in other houses. Just Ravenclaw really, as, remembering what the twins told him, he had to stick with what was more readily accepted in his own house... And in the first couple of weeks, he succeeded in befriending several members of the house of wise.

Other than that, Harry was concentrating on his schoolwork as he wanted to earn as much points for his house as possible. Not because he himself believed in the system so strongly, but because this – again, according to what the Carrow twins told him – will make the older students more tolerant towards him. And, so far, this seemed to work well enough... Of course, this didn't mean that the green-eyed boy-wizard was wasting himself over his schoolwork all the time, even if his options for 'fun' were quite limited in the castle... For Harry, who didn't really play chess or find gobstones interesting, this meant that he was either hanging out with his ...associates, or he was various reading books from the Hogwarts library for his own enjoyment.

Being always prepared for his classes and never being caught causing any troubles around the castle meant that the young Potter quickly became something of an exemplary student, which meant that his housemates let him be, because he had 'earned' his place in the house. Meanwhile, his way of treating others the same way he wanted them to treat him meant Harry was quite welcome to his Ravenclaw associates' study groups, and if he ever struggled with something taught in the class, they were quite willing to help him just like that... His example even showed some of the Slytherins that being arrogant jerks that were throwing their family name around any time they wanted something might not always be the best way to achieve what they desired.

Before Harry knew it, his first semester at Hogwarts ended, and he was given a choice of either spending his holiday with his relatives or celebrating Yuletide here, at Hogwarts. And to anyone who had even a first guess about his home life, his choice of remaining in the castle was obvious. Even the lack of gifts for him under the Christmas tree didn't bother the green-eyed wizard too much, as being away and free from the Dursleys' oppression was enough for him. Though, he did admit it to himself that seeing others who stayed at Hogwarts receive mountains of gifts did make him jealous.

January came, and the new semester began without anything really noteworthy happening around the castle... Still, come early spring, it became apparent that Harry somehow became something akin an unofficial leader of the first year 'snakes'. Well, leader may not be the right word here, as he held very little power over his classmates, representative would be more fitting term as both professors and older students were more likely to listen to him than to any other Slytherin 'firstie'. But, still, there were some willing to listen to his advices...

The time flew by, and soon it was time for the end of the year examinations already. And Harry aced those, putting himself firmly as the best student in his house in the year and the third in his year overall. And during the school year he had spent at Hogwarts, the young Potter also made some connections with his peers both in Ravenclaw and in Slytherin, including Flora and Hestia. And those two held a very special place in his mind as they were pretty much the first ones among his generation to show him some kindness.

So, all in all, the green-eyed wizard could easily say that the first year of his Hogwarts education was much better than a year in the school back in Little Whinging with Dudley to keep him ridiculed and friendless would have been... Alas, it looked like he still had to spend his summer at Privet drive, which wasn't something he was looking forward to. Maybe, though, he should just run away and live at the 'Leak Cauldron' while not at Hogwarts? He sure had enough gold to afford that...

**~/ *** \~**

In the end, after just five weeks of living in the same house with his relatives, Harry decided that he couldn't stand it there anymore and so he just moved to the room in the 'Leaky Cauldron' he had rented till the end of the summer. And even though living in the pub next to the Diagon alley wasn't exactly cheap, the green-eyed youth liked it there, so, he decided that until he had his own place to live, he will spend his summers there from now on.

Finally, it was September the first and time for the young Potter to return back to Hogwarts. He had been looking forward to this for days, so it looked like nothing, not even annoying drizzle falling from the plumbeous skies could do anything to give him the hump...

* * *

Unfortunately, it wasn't so as just about ten minutes after the Hogwarts express had departed from Kings Cross, a first-year Weasley boy burst in his compartment and accused him of being a dark and evil wizard, before telling him how his parents would be so disappointed in him and how he should have had committed suicide instead of allowing himself being sorted into the house of snakes. Of course, Harry wasn't going to take these insults without retaliating, so the red-haired boy found himself out of the compartment, silenced and with a glowing purple words 'prejudiced pig' written on his forehead before he was even half done with this tirade.

Done with this annoyance, the young Potter really hoped that the rest of his train ride would be quiet and peaceful. Too bad, this didn't come to pass as some fifteen minutes later some blonde pounce who introduced himself as Draco Malfoy barged into the compartment and practically demanded that Harry becomes one of his subordinates 'cause those with impure blood were good only as servants to the pure-blood elite. Since the Potter heir was already quite annoyed from his earlier interaction with the Weasley kid, he wasn't ceremonious with Draco and the two goons by his sides, and those three quickly found themselves out of the compartment with their leader having 'arrogant brat' written in glowing purple on his forehead...

Deciding that he didn't want anyone else to further annoy him, Harry locked his compartment with the strongest locking charm he knew and returned to reading his book, which, this time, was about magics used by Constantinople people and middle-age Arabs. The young Potter was finding this book he bought for some ten sickles to be very interesting because the magical described in it was so different from what they were taught at Hogwarts.

Alas, as interesting a read as this book was, it did little to improve his mood as cold and heavy rain drumming on the train window was a constant reminder to the green-eyed wizard that he will get sousing before he reaches the castle as he was yet to learn any proper water-repelling charms. And, well, the young Potter wasn't exactly looking forward to braving the damn rainfall...

* * *

Finally dry and warm, thanks to some very useful charms, Harry found himself sitting with his housemates in the Great hall as professor McGonagall was making the final preparations for the sorting ceremony. And watching the deputy headmistress, the young Potter silently wondered why none of the professors were doing anything to help her?

Speaking of the professors, he noticed that Catherine Armstrong, who taught DADA the previous year, was nowhere to be seen, and in her place was sitting a rather young wizard in deep-purple robes with a matching turban on his head. Harry had met this guy in the apothecary when he was shopping for his potion ingredients, and back then the man didn't strike as a great wizard. And now it looked like the man was afraid even of his own shadow, so the green-eyed youth had his doubts about him being able to teach DADA well.

At one moment, Harry made an eye contact with the man, and he had to clench his teeth from a jolt of pain that shot through the scar on his forehead... Scars, even the cursed ones, normally don't ache without any obvious reasons, so the young Potter decided that he should investigate his – just in case there was something nasty attached to it that he was previous unaware of.

Finally, professor McGonagall returned to the Great hall with the new first year following closely behind her. And once the hat had sang its song, which was different from the one a year before, the ceremony began. And while Harry didn't really pay much attention to those being sorted, he did hear Susan Bones, the only niece of the current DMLE head being sorted into Hufflepuff. Maybe it would be not such a bad idea for him to befriend this shy redhead... Unfortunately, the Malfoy heir was sorted into Slytherin, which meant that Harry will have to deal with him on a daily basis... Once the last firstie, Blaze Zabini, was sorted into Slytherin, Dumbledore said some odd words that included a warning about a gruesome death that awaited those who dared to enter the right corridor of the third floor, and the feast began...

* * *

After the feast, and after professor Snape's introductory speech, the young Malfoy heir tried to establish himself as the top dog in the house Slytherin. And he tried to achieve that by throwing around his father's name. Of course, since he himself couldn't do anything but order his two grunts, Crabbe and Goyle, to beat the opposition to enforce his views on who must be leader among the students, only first years, and not even all of them seemed to agree with the blond pounce.

Unfortunately for Harry, he happened to be the one with the most authority in his year – hell, even some of the older students seemed to give him some grudging respect – so some of his pretensions Draco brought up to him. A couple of really basic spells later, though, the spoiled brat decided to take a time out and think up some more cunning strategy that could make him the leader of the Slytherin students...

"_**Stupid pompous brats!.. Oh, how do I hate them. They think that the world owes them just because of what family they were born into, yet they themselves aren't worth the space their bodies occupy.**_" The young Potter suddenly heard someone speak in a slightly hissing voice. Looking around, he noticed that no one else seemed to have heard this, which made him more than slightly curious. Turning around, Harry saw the portrait of Salazar Slytherin looking less then friendly in the direction where the young Malfoy had disappeared. Maybe it was this portrait that said that? But the green-eyed wizard had never heard it talk before... Actually, many thought that it couldn't talk at all... Meanwhile, Salazar's portrait noticed that the dark-haired wizard had heard and understood him. "_**Hmm... A speaker?**_" The magical painting asked himself. Now, Harry was sure that it was the portrait talking.

"_**Um... Excuse me?**_" He said, making Salazar nod to himself.

"_**Yes, definitely a speaker.**_" The founder summed up. "_**And even from those whom I'd consider to be my student back in the days when I was still alive.**_" The green-eyed Potter made a small but extremely polite bow towards the lord Slytherin.

"_**Thank you, sir.**_" Salazar muttered something under his breath in a mix of the Old English and Latin that Harry couldn't really hear. Then he became silent once again... And only when the portrait did talk anymore, the green-eyed wizard became aware of the dead silence in the common room. Turning around, he saw that pretty much everyone present there was staring at him. "What?" Harry asked after a couple of seconds.

* * *

Once again, the young Potter had the light of knowledge brought to him by the Carrow twins: Flora and Hestia explained it to him – in the private of his room – that he appeared to be a parselmouth. In other words, someone with a rare ability to talk to snakes. And in Europe only Slytherin bloodline was known for possessing this ability. So, after what had happened earlier in the common room, many would see Harry as a descendant of the 'greatest of the Hogwarts four' and a royalty of sorts, despite his status of a half-blood.

It turned out that the girls were right again, and Harry's social standing in the house grew overnight so greatly. Of course, not everyone agreed that he was anything more than a 'dirty half-blood bastard' – the young Malfoy was the most vocal among those – but since they were a minority at the moment, there was little that they could do...

Even though he once again found himself in the center of everyone's attention, and unwillingly at that, the young Potter managed to do alright. Sure, it was more than a bit annoying when some students from other houses, especially the Gryffindor ones, were calling for his blood simply because he was a parselmouth, but the green-eyed wizard didn't let it get to him, and soon the student body found other things to gossip about. And, of course, having Flora and Hestia by his side also helped Harry a lot...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile, the school year progressed, and the troubles began following the young Potter. First, there was professor Quirrell himself: like Harry had feared, the man was not capable of teaching DADA properly. And then there was the mystery of the forbidden corridor – something was making the green-eye Slytherin think that this all was some kind of a test for him (the Boy Who Lived) that the headmaster had cooked up. And while the Potter heir decided that was not going to dance to Dumbledore's tune, he still did some research to find out what was hidden there. And according to drunk Hagrid, it was the Philosopher's stone...

Before long, Halloween came, and Harry had a feeling that something was going to happen that night. He was proven right, when in the middle of the feast professor Quirrell burst into the Great hall and informed everyone about a troll in the dungeons... And Dumbledore in all of his wisdom ordered everyone back to the common rooms, conveniently forgetting that Slytherin's was in the dungeons as well. Luckily, the young 'snakes' didn't meet the beast on their way to the safety of the common room...

The next morning, though, Harry learned that a first-year muggleborn first year witch from Gryffindor was mauled badly by the troll – the girl was crying her eyes out in the toilet during the feast because some insensitive jerk made her cry earlier that day and so she didn't knew about the beast somehow finding its way into the castle. Thankfully, while she would have to spend some time in the Hospital wing, the young witch will recover completely.

The next several days were quiet, but it didn't last long: during the Gryffindor-Slytherin quidditch match someone jinxed the bludgers and the balls tried to attack Harry, who was on the tribune with his associates. They managed to dodge the balls for long enough for the professors to arrive there and try to protect them. Though, using magic against the bludgers turned out to be not the best idea, as the balls just exploded violently, showering the area with shrapnel...

Whoever was behind that attack – for Harry there was no doubt that it was an attempt on his life – he decided to lay low for some time, so next couple of months was relatively peaceful for the green-eyed wizard.

The Christmas holiday this year was great for the young Potter. He even got several presents this time. And among those there were some sweets from Flora and Hestia, who now were his friends. Of course, he had sent them a gift of his own: some Honeydukes chocolates he had obtained through one of the older student. But there was another gift that the young wizard found interesting. There was an unsigned package containing an invisibility cloak that was said to be his father's... While it was very tempting to do some night-time exploration of the castle, Harry decided that it was not worth the risk of losing the cloak if he was caught.

The early spring was surprisingly uneventful, not that the young Potter thought that it was a bad thing. But as the time was approaching the end of the semester, the green-eyed Slytherin saw professor Quirrell acting more and more suspiciously – like the man wanted to go after the Philosopher's stone, but was not sure of how to do that unnoticed...

Speaking of Quirrell, Harry did some research on the cursed scar he had, and he came to a conclusion that there should be some sort of a connection between him and whoever else was there for the scar to cause him pain. And since the Potter heir was quite sure that he hadn't met the stuttering professor before the previous summer, the evidence pointed it to the man being a host to some other entity. The wraith of Lord Voldemort, if Harry was to make a guess.

And the news that the Dark Lord wasn't dead, not completely at least, was a very very bad one, especially since it would take more than just a residue of dark magic in his head for the cursed scar to work as it did. He'll have to consult goblin cursebreakers about this...

At the very end of the year, when most of the exams were over, Harry had heard that Quirrell, or whatever other entity that was in control of the body, went after the stone. But the green-eyed wizard wasn't going to try to stop the would-be-thief himself, he just informed professor Snape about this and did his best to stay out of trouble.

* * *

Even though Harry could honestly say that this school year wasn't easy for him – after all, he had to deal with being uncovered as a snake-speaker, have someone after his life and deal with a priceless artifact brought to the castle for some reason – it was still quite good. Especially since he finally had some friends and not just mere associates. The fact that the said friends of his were pretty twin girls was an icing on the proverbial cake.

On the train ride back to London, Flora and Hestia decided to share a compartment with him, and the young Potter had enjoyed their mostly quiet company. But the twin hug they gave him just before they left the compartment after the train had stopped at the platform 9¾ was by far more enjoyable. Really, that was among the greatest highlights of the whole school year for the green-eyed boy-wizard...

Anyway, since he had completely parted his ways with the Dursleys the last summer, Harry flooed straight to the 'Leaky Cauldron' from the platform, and once he was there, he rented room for the whole summer: with what he had planned, it really would be the best if he stayed close to Gringotts. After all, no one knew how much time it would take the goblin curse-breakers to find out what was there in his cursed scar.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry didn't like what the curse-breakers had uncovered – who would like to have a shard of their parents' killer's soul stuck in their forehead – but he was thankful that this thing was found out. And that the said soul shard had been removed and destroyed. Especially since without this freeloader the green-eyed wizard felt so much better.

Unfortunately, it wasn't clear whether this soul shard was the only one, or Lord Voldemort had split his soul more than once in hopes of achieving immortality. And the goblins weren't thrilled with the thought that another such abomination might be somewhere in their bank... So they had ordered every curse-breaker team they had available to check the contents of all of the vaults. Should they find another soul shard somewhere, the contents of that vault would be seized by the Goblin nation – with Harry getting a small percent of that gold for his 'deeds for security of the Goblin nation' – and its  
owner would be banned for Gringotts forever...

And judging by the fact that at the very beginning of August the green-eyed wizard had received a statement from the bank telling him that some rather substantial amount of galleons had been transferred to the Potter vault, the goblins had found at least one soul shard hidden somewhere in the vaults of their bank.

Of course, doing his summer homework and working with goblins on destroying Voldemort's soul shards weren't the only things Harry did that summer. Since now he had some real friends in the magical world, he decided that he should get himself an owl, so that he could send them a letter anytime he wanted. Thus, on the second day of his stay at the 'Leaky Cauldron' he visited 'Eeylops Owl Emporium' and got himself a nice tawny owl that he named Athena. That very evening he had sent his first letter to the twins. The correspondence between the three of them that ensured only deepened their friendship...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry sighed as he boarded the Hogwarts express. If he was to believe the 'Daily Prophet', Gilderoy Lockhart will be their DADA professor for this year, and the man seemed to be far more useless than Quirrell had ever been. Even worse, Lockhart had everyone buy a full set of his novels, which were far from cheap...

Thankfully, all other professors, save for the ghostly Binns, whose lessons the young Potter will be attending, were at very least competent in their respective areas. And, to be honest, Harry was looking forward to Charms and Transfiguration and Potions as those were his favorite subjects; he was also looking forward to Ancient Runes and Arithmancy as the subjects intrigued him.

Since like always he arrived a bit early, finding a compartment for himself and the twins, as Flora and Hestia will definitely be joining him later, wasn't difficult. But since the twins hadn't arrived to the platform 9¾ yet, the green-eyed wizard decided to do some more reading from his tome on Potions...

He didn't have to wait for his friends for long though, as ten minutes before the train was to depart the Carrow twins joined him there. And this time the witches greeted him a friendly kiss on his cheeks, again making the dark-haired teen wonder, whether their friendship will develop into something more with time or not... And now that his puberty began, Harry began noticing Flora and Hestia as girls. And while they might not possess the beauty of nymphs or veelas, they were still very pretty witches; he definitely wouldn't mind getting to know them on a bit more private level.

The thoughts about having some naughty fun with the twins (in a threesome, of course – Harry was a male like all others, after all) would have to wait for some time, though, as two girl, whom the Potter heir recognized as Daphne Greengrass from a year below his and her friend Tracey Davis politely asked, whether they could sit in this compartment or not. And even if he barely knew the 'younger witches, Harry did think that he himself or Flora and Hestia would mind their company, so he let them into 'his' compartment.

**~/ *** \~**

Unfortunately the rumors were right, and it was Gilderoy Lockhart himself who was their new DADA teacher. So, for Harry it looked like they'll have to spend a year listening to the man's stories about his supposed great deeds... Oh well, the Potter heir decided, he and his classmates that were interested in getting the real knowledge and not just in passing the course, could study the Defense on their own. Maybe this was even a bit better: this way they could learn those magics that suited them better, and not the generalized set that the good professor would teach...

* * *

The first two months of the new school year were pretty good for Harry, if he was to ignore Lockhart's attempts to make him the one to play the roles of various dark creatures from the scenes from his books: most of the lessons were interesting and there was nothing too strange going on in the castle... While the Carrow twins were still mostly cold as usual toward him in the public, when they were in more private settings, they allowed far more things, even some kissing...

Unfortunately, this measured life didn't last long: just after the Halloween feast ended, someone found a petrified Mrs. Norris – Filch's cat – and a writing on the wall that said that the Chamber of Secrets was opened. This immediately alienated the entire house as the rest of the students as people were suspecting that it one of the Slytherins that did this. And Harry didn't like this one bit.

As soon as he could, he talked to Salazar's portrait, and, in the end, the founder agreed to tell him where the entrance to Chamber was: sure, Lord Slytherin wasn't the nicest man around, but he too didn't like it when those in his house were persecuted without reason...

The very next day Harry went to the toilet on the second floor (Moaning Myrtle's one) and created some very simple yet rather effective for his cause wards: as soon as someone would touch the detection charm, he or she would get a powerful stunner to his face, while another little charm would alert Harry that someone had tried to access the Chamber.

The Potter heir had to wait for a week, but eventually his trap worked and caught someone. When he arrived there, he found just a Gryffindor firstie there. He almost thought that she had activated his trap by a mistake, but then he noticed an old black diary in her robe's pocket. And this diary was almost glowing with the amount of magic – a very dark magic – that it had in it... After confiscating the diary from the girl, Harry adjusted her memories so that she wouldn't remember him sneaking around the girls' toilet.

Now that he had an artifact that might be behind the re-opening of the Chamber of Secrets, Harry contacted Gringotts and asked for an all-goblin curse-breaking team for his next Hogsmeade weekend.

As it turned out, the diary contained yet another soul shard of Lord Voldemort. And it was the third one that was destroyed. This made Harry wonder, how many more the Dark Lord had created – after all, it would be impossible to off the evil man completely, if he still had another such thing hidden somewhere. This required some more research, so that he would be well-prepared, when he finds the next soul shard. Or when the dark tosser resurrects himself, whichever happens first...

* * *

With the Chamber of Secrets problem dealt with, the rest of the year was good for the Potter heir, especially when the twins decided that they wanted their Harry-time, which by the time the spring was in its full glory was for more than just some friendly kisses...

Of course, like everyone else, Harry had to endure Lockhart's 'lessons' till someone – read Fred and George Weasley – went on a pranking spree in the early May and somehow managed to expose the blond wizard as a fraud in the process... Lockhart, of course, didn't like this and tried to correct the situation in his favor with some mind magics, but it backfired, and he found himself in the DMLE holding cells before he could do any real damage to the Hogwarts students.

**~/ *** \~**

For the summer before his fourth year, Harry once again decided to live in the rented room in the 'Leaky Cauldron' pub. This allowed him to stay closer to the magical world, and, consequently, to his girlfriends... And with how the things progressed between them, the young Potter was rather sure that the three of them had a good chance of ending together for their 'happily ever after'. Possibly even around the time they were to sit through their NEWTs...

On his thirteenth birthday Harry was informed by a missive from Gringotts that he could try to become the head of the Noble house Potter – the family magics embedded into the lord's ring were to make the decision about him being worthy of the title or not. And, as it turned out, despite being so young, Harry was good enough to become a lord. This, in turn, allowed him to access the main Potter vaults, as well as to unseal the properties, which included a small manor somewhere in Wales. Unfortunately, the manor was damaged by the fire a decade ago, so it needed some repairs before it was livable again.

In the beginning of the second week of August the list of the books he will need during the upcoming school year arrived. And from it Harry could see the following two facts: first, they had a new Care for Magical Creatures professor, likely Hagrid, as the book was too beasty to be chosen by anyone else; and, second, their new DADA professor might actually be someone who will teach the subject properly, like professor Armstrong did.

The next day, though, turned out to be much darker then Harry would have like it: according to the 'Daily Prophet' a mass murderer Sirius Black had escaped from the Azkaban prison. Some research that the young Potter did had uncovered that the wizard supposedly was Voldemort's right hand man and had betrayed the Potters to the Dark Lord at the end of the war. Some further research also showed that Black had been thrown into Azkaban without a proper trial. After some thinking, Harry owled his findings to the head of the DMLE, Amelia Bones, in hopes that she will clear this mess – officially he just wanted the new trial for Black to get his motives for betrayal out of him. With this problem hopefully taken care of, the new lord Potter did his best to enjoy the rest of the summer.

**~/ *** \~**

Much like it was two years ago, it was cold and rainy on the September the first. But for Harry it wasn't all that bad, as the twins, who once again were sharing a compartment with him, decided that the three of them could do some warming up. In a way that required closed and sealed with magic doors as they didn't want to be interrupted.

Too bad, their private time didn't last as long they hoped: about an hour before they were to arrive to the Hogsmeade station, the train was stopped. And searched by a small group of very foul creatures that, according to Hestia, were dementors, the guards of the Azkaban prison... Once these foul creatures were gone, the threesome had some more 'warming up' to forget about their meeting with the beasts...

* * *

As it turned out that their new DADA professor was a pro-Dumbledore wizard who was a classmate and a close friend of Harry's parents. But since Harry himself was a Slytherin, the man chose to keep his distance from him, not that the young Potter terribly minded this...

And special measure to keep Sirius Black out of Hogwarts aside, the school year was forming to be a good one for the green-eyed wizard. This year all of his professors, Binns aside, though now the young lord Potter wondered, why no one was doing anything about the ghost, were competent and taught their respective subjects well. And if he was to put the academics aside, he now had a pair of nice and pretty witches that sometimes came to his room at nights for some fun...

During the first quidditch match of the season Harry had another close encounter with the dementors as the foul creatures decided to come to the pitch to feed on the students' emotions. Of course, they were chased away by the professors' patronus charms before they could do any harm – not that Harry or the Carrow twins was in any great danger up there on the tribunes... Still, to cheer themselves, the threesome had some fun in Harry's room that night.

* * *

Before anyone knew, it was Christmas. Like always, Harry got some presents, the greatest of which was from his girls. Though, this year, they gave it to him personally, In his room and in the dead of the night. After all, it was hard to gift themselves otherwise...

And even more interesting, on the Boxing day the young lord Potter received an owl from an elderly witch who was the regent of house Carrow and the caretaker for the twins. This witch was sending him a marriage contract. For both Flora and Hestia at the same time. And since the girls didn't look at all surprised by this, the young Potter concluded that they were the ones, who asked for this... After reviewing the contract so that there were no unexpected surprises later on, Harry signed it in such a way that the twins could break it without problems, either for him or for them, if they desired so.

According to this contract, Harry was to officially marry both sisters at the same time during the summer after their OWLs. He was also to pay a bride price of two hundreds thousands galleons total for them, but he saw this as a fair price for the nice and beautiful girl that Flora and Hestia were... Finally, while it wasn't specified in the contract, which of the girls was for which line, he still had to produce a heir for the Carrow line. He had to produce a heir for the Potter line as well, but that was obvious enough without it being written on the parchment.

* * *

Sometime in the early March Sirius Black was caught sneaking around Hogsmeade by an auror Patrol. Somehow, Amelia Bones managed to wrestle her right for giving the man a trial from the minister for magic, Cornelius Fudge, who wanted Black be given a dementor's kiss right away... Apparently, Fudge had a reason for that, as during the trial it was uncovered that he assisted in throwing Sirius into Azkaban without even a questioning. It was also uncovered with the liberal use of veritaserum that Black neither was a death eater, nor he had ever betrayed Potters to the Dark Lord. He didn't kill Pettigrew or those twelve muggles either.

So, Sirius Black was pardoned and, after receiving a great compensation for his time in the prison, was allowed to return into the society. Meanwhile, Pettigrew, who was hiding in Hogwarts as Ronald Weasley's rat, was arrested. Unfortunately, the rat-man somehow managed to escape the ministry holding cells just before he would be given a trial.

At first Sirius wanted to meet Harry, who, apparently, was his godson. But once the man learned that the green-eyed wizard was a Slytherin, he called him a traitor of the Light and told to never talk to him again, before disappearing somewhere... Harry just shrugged: having grown up with the Dursley, and now being a lord of his house, he didn't feel any need in a godfather at the moment. Nor he wanted such a prejudiced man to be one for him...

**~/ *** \~**

The summer before his fifth year, Harry spent in the freshly-repaired Potter manor. With Flora and Hestia visiting him there rather often, sometimes staying there overnight or even longer. Always in his room and in his bed... And from the looks of it, their marriage will really happen and will be a happy one. He also was looking forward to returning to Hogwarts as he and the girls had a couple of fantasies about doing that – now that they were in contract, they were having some real sex – at school...

And with some rumors about the Triwizard Tournament being resurrected and held at Hogwarts this year, the young lord Potter was really looking forward to the upcoming school year. Yes, this year was going to be quite an interesting one, Harry was sure about this.


	43. Harry Potter :: a Potter-Black family

**Harry Potter :: Potter-Black family**

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off -" James shouted as he did his best to keep the Dark Lord occupied. And Lily immediately headed upstairs, though as she approached the nursery, a thought occurred to her: running away was pretty useless. Sure, she and her baby would live through this night, but what next? Even if she hid well, Voldemort had almost taken over the magical Britain by now, and once he succeeded there, he will have all resources of the Ministry of Magic to hunt her down. And there would no place, where she and, more importantly, her Harry, could be safe.

No, she needed to fight, and she needed to kill the Dark Lord now. And that self-sacrificial ritual to give her baby protections like no other that she read about could do that, even if she herself will die. But what if the ritual failed? There should be some other way to resolve the current crisis... Wards! As the mistress of the house, Lily could feel the wards around the cottage, and all of them, including the fidelius, were still up: Voldemort did not force his entrance, he was granted one by that traitorous Rat. And since the wards were still up and at their full power, she could use them in attempt to off the Dark Lord. Even if the wards themselves weren't offensive...

Running past the nursery, Lily headed to the master bedroom, where she and James kept the ward stone. She really hoped that her beloved would be able to give her the time she needed to organize the collapse of the wards in the way she wanted it to happen... It looked like lady Luck was on her side today, as the fight downstairs was still going on, when the red-haired witch left the bedroom and headed to nursery – she knew that Voldemort's true target was there, and so this room was the best place for her to confront the bastard... And if the trick with the wards failed, she still could try doing that ritual...

Lily didn't have to wait for the Voldemort for long: no matter how good James was, the Dark Bastard was more powerful, more skilled and more experienced... But not it was not time to think about that! As soon as the red-haired witch saw the killer of her husband through the open doors of the nursery, she threw the ward stone at him. On pure reflex, Voldemort dodged the projectile. Which didn't really help him any as a moment later Lily commanded the wards around the cottage to collapse, while raising her strongest shield to protect herself and her child from the discharge.

Voldemort, being too close to the ward stone, did not have a way to shield himself from what was to come, and so when wards did collapse – creating some interesting visual effects of an imploding sphere filled with whitish smoke of pure magic – his body, along with a good potion of the cottage, was incinerated before his mind could even understand what was going on...

Thankfully for the Dark Lord, his soul anchors kept his spirit bound to the mortal plane. But since he no longer had a body, there was little that he could do in such a wounded state. Thus, the wraith he had become fled from the remains of the Potter's cottage. He'll have to spend some time in hiding to recover from this humiliating defeat, but once he was back, the world would bow before him, the heir of Slytherin, the greatest of the Hogwarts four!..

* * *

Once the blinding light was gone and she could see normally again, Lily lowered her shield and looked around. She and little Harry were alright, but a good portion of the cottage had evaporated. And with the wards gone, remaining there for any duration of time was extremely dangerous. But where to go? Hogwarts? No, it was too obvious, and since there were students there, the Death Eaters would know that she was there before the sun sets tomorrow. Sirius's place? No, that flat not a place for her baby to grow up. Remus's? Not safe because of the man's lycantropy...

Before she could think of some other place where to crash, an idea popped into her head: she could rent a room in some muggle hotel for now – the Death Eaters were all inbred pure-bloods who would never even think about looking for her there if she didn't use her wand. ...And once this whole mess was cleared, Lily though, she could by a muggle flat and have it warded with everything the Potters' gold could buy. Yes, this definitely sounded like a plan. So, casting some warming charms on her son's blanket, She picked him up and apparated away.

* * *

A couple of minutes later, several members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Albus Dumbledore himself, popped into the area, but all that they could see was an empty and badly damaged Potter's cottage with no wards protecting it – well, the collapse of the wards was the very reason Dumbledore knew that something had happened there.

Since there were no people alive in the remains of the cottage, and there was no dark mark above the said remains, the Hogwarts headmaster concluded that the Potters managed to repel the attack on their home, before leaving it as they were no longer safe there. He'll have to contact them later somehow. But right now he needed to find out what had happened there, and why the wards around the cottage had collapsed so violently.

As the members of the Order of the Phoenix approached the destroyed house, they could see James's body lying on the floor of the destroyed in a heated magical duel hall – somehow, whatever had obliterated a good portion of the cottage stopped just a little more that a foot above the dead man. Good, as it would be rather hard to give James proper burial without his body in the coffin. And a hero like him deserved a proper burial...

Anyway, with the stairs completely destroyed, the second floor of the cottage was rather hard to reach now. Of course, that didn't apply to those, who could apparate, and Albus did just that, popping into the nursery, which was the room that was damaged the least in whatever had happened here. With the use of some very old and complex magics, professor Dumbledore managed to uncover that just before he and his order had arrived there, two humans had disapparated from the nursery. And, once again, since there was no dark mark over the remains of the cottage, the Hogwarts headmaster concluded that Lily and Harry had somehow survived the encounter and were now laying low somewhere.

Alas, the explosion that had damaged the cottage so greatly made it completely impossible even for him to find any clues about the magics that were used before the said explosion had happened. So, everyone would have to wait for Lily to come forward with her statement about the events of this night to learn what had truly happened at the Potters' cottage. So, since there was nothing what he and the order could do there, Dumbledore disapparated away with his followers doing the same moments later. Another five minutes later, a group of aurors finally showed up...

**~/ *** \~**

While the attack on her family and the death of her husband had hit the red-haired witch hard, Lily had no time to grieve and mourn: she still had her little Harry who needed her. So, she did her best to remain strong for her son and give him the best, while making plans on how to rebuild their lives...

But not even two full days after Voldemort's attack, she was forced out of her hiding when the 'Daily Prophet' proclaimed that Sirius Black was sent to Azkaban for betraying Potters to the Dark Lord. What a lie, as Lily was there herself when Albus Dumbledore cast the fidelius and made that Rat the secret keeper. And even worse, the redhead could read between the lines that Sirius wasn't given even a questioning, much less a proper trial for his supposed betrayal... She absolutely needed to rectify this! And since there was no way she'd leave her Harry with anyone at all at the moment, she'd have to bring her little darling with her to the Ministry of Magic...

* * *

It was quite a sight when the red-haired fury that was Lily Potter stormed through the corridors of the Ministry of Magic with a baby in her arms. And only the fact that they were open when she got there saved the doors of Minister's office from being blown apart... Of course, Millicent Bagnold was far from happy when she her work was interrupted by an uninvited guest. But whereas the Minister was just annoyed, the lady Potter was furious, so that didn't really count...

"What is the meaning of this?!" Lily yelled as she slammed her free hand onto the mahogany table of the Minister for Magic. "Why did you send Sirius to that damned prison of yours?! Without a thrice damned trial no less!" The power of the younger witch's rage was so great that Millicent couldn't say a single word for several seconds, during which Lily kept glaring daggers – no, broadswords – at her.

"B-But... He was..." The Minister found herself doing a weak attempt to defend herself in front of someone who was way below her in social standing and political power. And, of course, was of a much lesser blood: even if not as radical as Voldemort and his Death Eaters, Millicent Bagnold still believed pure-bloods to be superior.

"Our secret keeper was Pettigrew!" Lily hissed dangerously practically spitting out the traitor's name. "And so he is the one who betrayed us to the Dark-Lord. You will release Sirius, with compensation, of course, and you will start hunting the real traitor." The Minister was so flabbergasted by the lady Potter's incursion that she, completely forgetting about her rank, let the redhead dominate her in this battle of wills. That, of course, didn't mean that she was defeat and accepting Lily's course of action: admitting that they had sent an innocent person into Azkaban was never good for someone's political career, and Millicent didn't want to leave her office just yet.

"B-But..." She tried to protest again, but this time the lady Potter didn't let her say even two words before interrupting her:

"You will do what is right, Minister, or so help me..." Lily said in a low dangerous voice. And even though her threat was almost positively an empty one, madam Bagnold had been too scared by the redhead's onslaught to understand that at the moment. So, Millicent just nodded. "Good." The lady Potter replied, before stalking out of the Minister's office.

Somehow, little Harry had slept peacefully through the whole encounter in his mother's arm. Likely, that was because he had been given some powerful sleeping drought beforehand. But that was completely legal...

**~/ *** \~**

The next couple of days was rather quite with the exception of the Ministry announcing that a deeper investigation into Sirius Black's case revealed that he had been framed for his supposed crimes. The Ministry even announced that Pettigrew was the real 'bad guy' here, and using Sirius's help, provided a description of both his human and his rat forms.

Unfortunately, it looked like good things don't last, and in the dead of the night of November the sixth a group of Death Eaters that were very concerned with their master's sudden disappearance attacked the Longbottom manor. Of course, they'd go after the Potter's mudblood first, but they couldn't find out where she was hiding, so they decided to try and see, whether the Longbottoms knew what had happened to the Dark Lord.

And with Augusta being away on some of her personal business, Frank and Alice were the ones at the manor, save for their fifteen months old daughter Nellie. And while those two were exceptional aurors and great wizard and witch, they weren't enough to overcome, even with the help of the manor's wards, five Death Eaters from the Inner circle. The two fought bravely and managed to take down one of their attackers before they themselves fell... That was where their hell started: the Death Eaters didn't want them dead yet. Instead they wanted to know the fate of their master, using great dozes of cruciatus curse to 'grease the wheels' of their interrogation. And since they refused to believe that Frank and Alice really didn't know what had happened on the Halloween night, the four of the Death Eaters still alive kept torturing the duo towards their insanity.

That was when the Order of the Phoenix showed up and, without wasting a single second, they initiated the fight with the Dark Lord's minions.

* * *

Lily learned about the attack on her friends the next from the 'Daily Prophet'. According to what was written in the magical newspaper, Both Frank and Alice suffered a very prolonged exposure to the cruciatus curse, and whereas Alice was expected to make full recovery in several year, healers of st. Mungo's were almost hundred percent sure that Frank will have to spend the rest of his life in the special ward of the hospital.

What was even worse, two of the Order members had died and five more were wounded while trying to subdue the Death Eaters. And one of those two who had lost their lives was Sirius Black – apparently those few hours he had spent in Azkaban had affected him more than anyone had thought. He was killed by Barty Crouch Jr., but that is not to say that Padfoot hadn't sent the bastard onto the next great adventure as well. Unfortunately, to Lily it was a very weak consolation...

At least, little Nellie was alright and had her Grandmother to raise her while Alice was recovering. On the second thought, Lily wasn't exactly sure that leaving her goddaughter in the care of the Longbottom matriarch was exactly a great idea – Augusta was likely to try to turn Nellie either in the copy of her mother or into a female version of Frank...

**~/ *** \~**

Lucius Malfoy was walking through the Diagon alley, enjoying his freedom. Just yesterday he finally managed to secure his released from the Ministry holding cells under the excuse that he had been under the effects of Imperio curse. Of course, this cost him a lot of money, but his freedom and the good name of house Malfoy was worth it.

Alas, it looked like the Fates weren't done with him. Just as he was about to enter Gringotts, he was confronted by one of the low-level Death Eaters who managed to avoid being caught so far. Lucius didn't even remember the man's name, though he was quite sure that he was one of those fanatics who would sacrifice himself without second thoughts if the Dark Lord as much as mentioned that it might help him in his quest to remove the muggle filth from the face of the Earth.

"Malfoy!" The unnamed Death Eater hissed, training his wand onto the blond aristocrat. "How-... How dare you deny being on the side of the Dark Lord!" The man shouted, causing Lucius to start cursing under his breath: he did so much to keep his name clean, and now this idiot had ruined his hard work. And what was even worse, he couldn't do anything to the bastard, as it will not help him any. "You should be proud of what you had been doing in the name of the Dark Lord, you traitor!" And before Lucius could even start thinking of a way out of the mess he had found himself in, he found himself raising a magical shield to protect himself from a stream of fire that the idiot Death Eater had released in his direction. "_**Avada kedavra!**_"

Since everything he could see was his shield keeping a sea of fire away from him, Lucius could see where the killing curse had been aimed too. No, he was not a fool to stand still and hope that his attacker would miss, and so he tried to dodge. Alas, he chose the wrong direction or, maybe, was a bit too slow, but the sickly-green beam of magic connected with his shoulder, thus ending his life.

* * *

Of course, the Death Eater that had attacked him was captured and sent to Azkaban, but what he was reported to say to the lord Malfoy caused the DMLE to look deeper into the deeds of every suspected Death Eater they had in their holding cells, and even run a new investigations for those that had already been released as they had claimed to be under the effects _**Imperio**_ curse. Needless to say that quite a few upstanding citizens of Magical Britain turned out to be killers, rapists and overall bastards in reality.

Anyway, it took the Ministry several hours to sort out this mess, and by the time they had informed the newly-widowed Narcissa about the fate of her husband. While their marriage was a contracted one, there still was some affection between the two, so once the messenger disappeared from the premises of the Malfoy manor, the blond witch instructed the house elves to look after Lyra for the rest of the day, while she herself headed to her bedroom and cried... Meanwhile, the rumors about Lucius Malfoy being the Dark Lord's right hand were already spreading through the community...

By the time Narcissa was ready to deal with those, the good reputation of the name Malfoy had been irreparably damaged by those rumors. And so, if she wanted a good life for her daughter, she'll have to have her and Lyra's last name changed back to Black. Alas, this would also remove them Malfoy line, and so the comfortable manor she grew used to will no longer be available to them. But if she were to choose between her daughter's good and her own comfort, Narcissa's choice was obvious...

**~/ *** \~**

It was the middle of December when Lily Potter finally decided that she was ready to tell everyone what had happened on that Halloween night when Voldemort had come after her family. Of course, not everything went as planned there. For one, all those pure-blood bigots refused to believe that she was the one who dealt the final blow – after all, how could a 'mudblood' kill the heir of Salazar Slytherin himself? – and, completely ignoring all evidence that didn't fit into their little world of pure-blood supremacy, were quick to proclaim James as the one who had saved everyone.

At least, Lily was clever enough not to argue with the inbred fools: if she did, they'd declare her incurably insane and... and her little Harry still needed his mommy. So, swallowing the bitter pill of someone else – even if it was her late husband – getting praised for her own achievement, she agreed with the Wizengamot that James might have really done something that resulted in Dark Lord's death and she had played only a minor role in that event. Oh well, it could have ended so much worse...

**~/ *** \~**

Raising her little darling Harry alone wasn't easy for Lily, but she managed. She had a nicely furnished and more-than-nicely warded apartment in a great muggle neighborhood in London. It was a nice and safe place that quickly became their new home... And the Potter house elves were quite happy to assist their mistress with whatever task she had for them. Plus in the recent months, Alice – she was finally declared to be in good enough mental health to leave the hospital – often visited them, bringing little Nellie with her for Harry to play with.

Of course, those visits weren't the only interactions that Lily had with the magical world. Even if she was seriously angry with the prejudiced pure-blood bigots that were ruling it. No, she was lady Potter and had to oversee the estate, so she could be seen at Gringotts at least once every month. That, and sometimes she also did shopping in the alley: magic was useful and Lily wasn't going to abandon it just because she loathed those morons in the magical government...

And right now, just a week before Christmas of 1984, lady Potter was shopping for the gifts for her son and her friends in the Diagon alley. She was alone, but that wasn't a problem: Harry was back at the flat with Nellie as his playmate and Alice to oversee them both... It didn't take Lily too long to find what she wanted, and by the time the clock stroke five in the afternoon, she was ready to return home.

She had already entered the 'Leaky Cauldron' and was just several yards away from the fireplace, when her eyes caught a rather familiar face among the crowd of random strangers. Sure, Narcissa Black (back then and again now) had never been friends with her, but as far as Lily could remember, the blond witch two years senior had never been mean to her either. And now that they both were single mothers, lady Potter even felt some sort of a connection with Narcissa...

* * *

Narcissa was sitting in the corner of the pub, drinking her tea and reminiscing about the better days of her life. Sure, returning to being Black had saved her reputation, but the comfortable Malfoy manor with house elves willing to serve her was no longer accessible to her. And with aunt Walbulga having gone completely mad from the loss of her both sons, number 12 was not a good place for her little Lyra to grow up... So, the only place where she could stay was a small hunting house in Essex. And, well, being a single mother with just one house elf to help her out was not easy for Narcissa. At least at first. By now she had adapted to this, but she still wished that the things would take turn for the better...

"Good afternoon, lady Black." Narcissa blinked. Apparently, she had been so deep in her thoughts that she didn't even notice someone approach her table. Not that many did that anymore with Malfoy name dead and covered in dishonor and Black, while still respected, fading away form the magical world... Looking up, the blond witch saw a rather familiar redhead, looking back at her. "Mind if I join you?"

"No, not at all, lady Potter." She replied. For the past three years it had been mostly just her, little Lyra and their house elf, so Narcissa was feeling kind of lonely nowadays, and Lily wanting to talk to her was quite welcome.

"Thank you." The redhead said as she took a seat across from the lady Black. There was an uneasy silence that lasted for several seconds. "So?.." Lily Potter finally breathed out, now failing to think of any topic she could talk about with blonde witch... Eventually though, the two ladies continued their conversation properly...

**~/ *** \~**

Over the course of the next several months Lily and Narcissa met several more times – and none of those were accidental meetings – and they were on the fast track to becoming really good friends. At some point, lady Potter had invited the her new friend over to her place. And her first interaction with the muggle world of the end of the twentieth century was quite an experience for the blond witch. No, Narcissa didn't suddenly become a die-hard supporter of progress, but it still changed her opinion about non-magicals a good deal...

And with how well Harry and Lyra had been playing together, even if the little Black heiress was very shy as she didn't really interact with anyone but her mom and their house elf, it meant that Narcissa would be coming over to Lily's place rather often... Of course, this created another problem, as the lady Potter wasn't sure about how Alice will react to the witch, whose sister and brothers-in-law had caused so much pain to her family. But as it turned out, her fears were baseless and those two were at least civil with each other. And, of course, Nellie, like all kids their age, had absolutely no problems with having a new playmate.

As Lily's and Narcissa's friendship went on, the red-haired witch noticed that lady Black almost never spoke about her home, nor did she invite them over as the guests. And, while prying into her follow lady's home life might have been not really polite, Mrs. Potter still did that, indirectly and gently, of course... What Lily did find out, made her think: maybe a remote hunting house was not the worst place to live, was it really what Narcissa and little Lyra needed? Maybe they should be living closer to the 'civilization'? They did visit her London flat at least once a week... This gave lady Potter an idea, but she really needed to think it over, before doing anything for real...

Lady Black, of course, was more than quite surprised when her red-haired friend asked whether she wanted to move in to the apartment, but she also couldn't deny it that she actually liked the idea. But like it often happens in the families with young children, the kids had the last word in the argument, and both Harry and Lyra seemed to like the idea of spending even more time together...

* * *

_I wasn't sure what else to write here... the basic idea, Narcissa and Lyra move in with Lily and Harry, creating a rather strange, but very nice family for the two kids. And while both of the children call the ladies 'mother', they know that they are not (closely) related, thus... some things will happen when they grow older. *wink*_

* * *

**Omake 1: Accidental kiss**

Eleven years old Lyra, despite everything, still was a rather shy girl. And so it took her quite some time to gather enough courage to approach Harry and tell him how she felt. Even if they were living under the same roof for more than five years and saw each other every day...

The blond girl peeked into the guest room, where the object of her affection was sitting on the sofa reading a Charms book their mothers presented him on his birthday. After taking several deep breaths to calm herself down enough to proceed with her earlier plan, Lyra tiptoed into the room and plopped down onto a seat next to dark-haired boy of her fantasies.

"Harry, I..." She started, before falling quiet. Still, it was enough to attract his attention, as the young Potter looked up from the book, fixing his eyes on her. Those emerald eyes... Lyra found herself blushing uncontrollably. "I... I wanted to tell you that..." The blond girl continued in a quiet and slightly shaking voice, while leaning forward a bit. "I fan-..."

"Hey there, guys!" Another voice shouted, and a moment later they were wrapped in a friendly hug by Nellie. And this made Harry's and Lyra's faces – already quite close – come even closer together with their lips connecting in a light kiss.

'_So good..._' Then she noticed that something was wrong: '_Wha-... when did she floo in?_' The Black heiress thought. A moment later, she a realization of what had just happened dawned upon her. For a moment her face turned Weasley-red and then she fainted with a silly happy smile on her lips.

**Omake 2: Second mother's lesson**

It was a late afternoon a couple of days before Harry would be fifteen, and the said black-haired teen had just returned from the pick-up quidditch game his friend Cedric Diggory had organized... And, of course, the young Potter was quite surprised to find his second mother, Narcissa, sitting cross-legged on his bed with a sultry smile on her face. And she was wearing a black silky robe that was hugging the curves of her body tightly, while still doing a good job of hiding anything and everything that Harry's rampaging teenage hormones could find truly interesting...

"Harry... You're right on time." The blond witch purred seductively, before he could say a single word, while leaning towards him and giving him a better view of her cleavage. Something that caused the green-eyed wizard to turn bright-red in his face: after all – despite Lily's original protests – he was to marry Lyra in a little more than two weeks from today, and now her mother appeared to be trying to seduce him... Paying no mind to his uneasiness, Narcissa continued: "And like every good mother, I want my little princess' first time to be memorable in a good way... So, after some talk with Lily, we decided that I shall give you some lessons on how to be a good lover."

"Um..." Was all that the young Potter could reply. Meanwhile, the blonde vixen stood up from his bed and approached him with her hands on what appeared to be the only button to keep her robe together.

"Don't worry, Harry..." She continued. "You mother is giving some pointers to Lyra as well. If you want, we can sneak a peek on them later on. I'm sure, you'll enjoy the show: your mother has such a wild imagination, believe me there." The blond witch said with some pinks now adorning her pretty face. Of course, that was no match for the atomic blush the green-eyed wizard was now sporting. But if anything, Narcissa thought that he was likely underestimating the kinkiness of his mother. 'Minx' was not a strong enough word to describe Lily in bed...

"Uh..." Harry still couldn't find enough wits to say something intelligent. Not that it was crucially important at the moment... Still, the blond vixen decided that they had wasted enough time on talking and she gently pushed the dark-haired teen onto his bed. Then she unbuttoned her robe completely and let it slid onto the floor against her frame, revealing that she was wearing a set of sexy black lacy bra and panties with black semi-transparent stockings and nothing else underneath.

"Let's start our lesson, shall we?" Narcissa purred as she advanced towards her 'prey'...


	44. Naruto & Freezing xover :: the Guardians

**Naruto & Freezing crossover :: The guardians of the Earth**

Revival of the Juubi, while successful, did not go the way that Madara wanted as the ten-tailed beast absolutely refused to cooperate and even the wooden dragon, which could so effectively stop Hachibi, was completely useless in keeping the reincarnated demon under any form of control. In the end, the undead Uchiha decided to try the sealing without restraining the Juubi, but that turned out to be a huge mistake.

Before he could complete even the second hand-seal, he get an **Imari** to his face, and the demonic technique was so powerful that it turned his body into a dust so fine that even **Edo Tensei** failed... Having dealt with the immediate annoyance, the single-eyed monstrosity turned its attention to the other occupants of the battlefield, and they all, irregardless of their affiliation had a single thought pass through their heads: '_Oh shit!_'

* * *

Naruto's respect for the Sage of Six Paths grew exponentially with every moment he survived against the Juubi: here, he with his sage powers and full support from Kurama could barely slow down the ten-tails, whereas Rikkudou Sennin had won against it with just his own powers! And even the return of Kiraabi and Gyuuki, whom he had asked to take Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei away from the battlefield, didn't change the things for the better – they were still losing badly.

'_Guess, I have no choice..._' Naruto thought. The old toad-geezer had foreseen that something like could happen, and so ancient sage taught him a forbidden sealing technique that the Gama clan had been guarding for centuries. '_Kurama!_' The blond shinobi ordered his partner. '_Leave me some of your strength and leave. Grab those two and get the hell outta here!_'

'_**Naruto?**_' While not exactly privy to what it's container was planning, the Kyuubi still had a good idea what the blond baka it had spent sixteen years with was planning. And to be honest, now that their relationship no longer was a hate-hate one, the nine-tails found itself to be caring a bit for the human.

'_Now!_' The young sage hissed, making the fox sigh. Even after all this time, the brat was still having his self-sacrificing tendencies. Oh well, this time it looked like that may be the only way, and since he wasn't going down too, Kurama didn't have too much problem with it. Though, now that it had found its currents container to be an acceptable, the Kyuubi wasn't all that happy about it ending now. Who know, what its next jinchuuriki – if there will be one – would be?..

'_**Alright**_**.**' The nine-tails said after what felt like an eternity. '_**Just don't mess this up, flesh bag!**_' With these friendly parting words, the nine-tailed beast separated itself from Naruto, leaving as much of its yoki as feeble human flesh could handle behind for the blonde to use. That done, it grabbed Kiraabi and Gyuuki with with its tales and forcefully dragged them away from the battlefield, proving that even with about two thirds of its power gone over the years, it was still the strongest of the nine.

The Juubi, even in its crazed state, wasn't completely stupid. So, when it noticed that the majority of its opponents fled, leaving just one tiny human behind, it paused, trying to come up with a reason for this. And Naruto wasn't wasting time: as quickly as he could, he created the strongest chakra chains that he could and had those wrap around the ten-tails. Sure, he knew that it will take the beast but a couple of seconds to free itself, but those precious seconds were just what he needed.

The Seal that the old toad sage taught him, much like **Shiki fuuin**, didn't require any preparations like drawing up an array. Another similarity was in the 'payment' for the use of the technique, but where the user of the **Shiki fuuin** sacrificed his soul to Shinigami, this seal just completely removed both the caster and the target from this plane of reality. And as much as Naruto didn't like the sound of it, it looked like using _this_ technique was the only way to stop the Juubi and save the world...

"This is it..." The blonde sighed. The seal didn't even have a proper name, so he had nothing to shout or something like that to dare himself for the last time. Instead, he just finished the last hand-seal and let everything happen, somehow hoping that whatever pains of being erased from existence he will feel would not last for the eternity...

As soon as the sequence of the hand-seals had been completed, a pillar of chakra shot up into the skies from Naruto's body. A moment later, it returned, crashing onto the Juubi and binding it again – the demon managed to break free from the chakra chains that a moment before that... The ten-tails let out an unearthly shriek as it tried to free itself, but to no avail: a dimensional rip appeared in the air, and both the blond sage and the single-eyed beast, both unable to move anymore, were agonizingly-slowly pulled into it... Once the two being were both completely inside the rip, it closed on its own, releasing a small shockwave that kicked dust into the air.

"**Damn that brat, he actually stopped the Juubi.**" The nine-tailed fox that had been observing this from a fair distance said mostly to itself. Then it looked around. While Gyuuki and its container weren't a threat, the same could not be said about the shinobi that were starting to gather here. Thus, in order to escape the fate of being locked away again, the Kyuubi made a mile-long leap, before jogging towards the mountains far away...

**~/ *** \~**

Fortunately or not, every technique has some problem or weakness, and the sealing jutsu that Naruto had used was no different, though no one in the Elemental Nations will ever learn about it. The said weakness originated from the very nature of the sealing method, which was as simple as banishing things into a dimensional fold. Thus, if the time-space continuum near the place where the sealing had happened was greatly disturbed, the fold may unlock, releasing its contents back into the world. And while the humanity, which had lost ability to mold chakra over the millennia but was yet to reach the technology levels to do it otherwise, could not cause a disturbance great enough to break the seal holding the Juubi, the same could not be said about other beings, should they choose to visit Earth...

* * *

December 21st, 2012 started much like any other day with the Western countries busy with the Christmas preparations, but it all changed when several unidentified energy fields were detected around the world in the riparian areas. A good deal of those disturbances were close to the major cities, and for once acting sensible, the governments issued evacuation for civilians and mobilization for the armies. Yet, the energy fields away from the populated areas were ignored. For better or for worse...

One of those ignored anomalies was located on the China shores, so when the energy fields became portals through which evil alien monster appeared, no one really paid attention to what happened there. Which was why the appearance of a huge ten-tailed single-eyed beast was not noticed until much much later...

**~/ *** \~**

As a being of immense power, the Juubi was the first one to regain its senses after the seal broke. And it was ready to finish the battle it was in – inside the seal time stood still, so for the ten-tails only a moments had passed since it had been sucked into the dimensional fold – but before it could kill the currently defenseless human on the ground, it noticed another being not far away.

The said being looked like an enormous floating leg-less torso with massive shoulders and three pairs of blade-like whips instead of the arms. And while it wasn't acting hostile towards the Juubi, the trail of destroyed forest that the thing left behind it caused something to break through the madness of the ancient beast. Long long ago, centuries before even the Rikkudou Sennin lived, the ten-tails was the shaper and the guardian of the Elemental Nations... And right now this alien thing was dealing far more damage to the lands than the unconscious human on the ground. So, letting out a roar that could be heard for miles, the Juubi attacked what will later become known as an S-type Nova...

Of course, the single-eyed beast chose to use **Imari** first, creating a huge ball of black chakra in front of its mouth in a single moment, before having unleash a powerful beam of energy at its opponent. But whatever that floating thing was, it wasn't going down this easily: as soon as the beam came close to it, it just dissipated harmlessly. The Juubi didn't like this one bit, but it chose to switch to melee, instead of just trying a more powerful **Imari**.

And as powerful as the strange freezing field around alien was, it wasn't strong enough to even slow the god-like tailed beast down. Nor its whip-like arms could deal any noticeable damage to the single-eyed monstrosity. The reverse wasn't true, and the Juubi rather easily ripped the its opponent apart once it managed to get a good hold on a surprisingly agile levitating alien...

Done with its current enemy, the ten-tails turned its attention back to the human with whom it had been battling before this interruption. Yet, with its mind no longer as clouded with madness, it could see that the blond teen on the ground actually had been fighting to stop it. Nothing more and nothing less, just like Rikkudou Sennin centuries before him. And if so, was it even right to kill him? Or, if not, what it should do? Just leave him there or?..

Its musings were interrupted by a group of flying machines approaching. While before its fight with the alien invader the single-eyed demon wouldn't have thought twice before attacking those, right now, it chose to wait and see, what those things were and what they wanted. And what was a better way to observe humans, which undoubtedly made those, than camouflaging itself as one?

* * *

When Naruto regained conscious, even without opening his eyes he could tell that he was in a hospital, though once he opened his eyes, the blond sage could clearly see that he was neither in Kumo nor in rebuild Konoha. Actually, as far as he could tell, he wasn't anywhere in the Elemental Nations: the technology around him was too different and too advanced for that.

But he didn't have much time to peacefully observe his strange surroundings as, despite still weak from his chakra exhaustion, he could easily tell that he wasn't alone in the room. And given how great and powerful that presence was, it didn't take him more than a second to locate that 'person'.

At the first glance his 'visitor' seemed to be just a girl in her late teens – a girl with haphazardly cut dark grayish-green somewhat spiky hair and very pale skin; it was impossible to tell what color her eyes were as she kept them closed; her clothes consisted of just a singled piece of thick gray cloth wrapped around her frame – but anyone capable of sensing chakra could easily tell that she was something else and most definitely not just a human.

"**Men... Sometimes so strong and capable... Sometimes so weak and fragile...**" The 'girl' said sagely, obviously addressing to him, though even Naruto himself was not sure how she knew he was now awake. "**Maybe **_**he**_** was right in giving you the right and the chance to live, maybe not, for I don't like what **_**his**_** and **_**your**_** kind did to my creation. But it's all just history now...**" The 'girl' fell silent, giving the last shinobi of the world a chance to ask his question:

"W-Who... What are you?" There was a long silence that left the blonde teen decisively uneasy. In the end, his visitor introduced herself.

"**You might know me as Ame no Hitotsu no Kami or, maybe, as Atara Deidara-Bocchi**" Alas, Naruto's memory wasn't as good when dealing with the random facts as it should have been. Sighing, the girl opened her eyes, making her true identity crystal-clear to him.

"Y-You are the J-Juubi?"

**~/ *** \~**

Adapting to the life a new world, the one where chakra was nothing more than a myth, was not very easy for Naruto. Nor it was easy for him to accept that the Juubi was now hiding out among humans, pretending to be a teenage girl. Though, as the ten-tails appeared to be quite docile now, no new fights had started between the two of them, not in the least because they went separate ways once the blonde was released from the hospital...

For a couple of years the last shinobi wandered the world, learning about the ways it has changed since his days. And of course, during his travels, he had more than once heard about evil alien beings called 'Nova' that had attacked on the very day his seal had failed and returned him and the Juubi to the world of living. Maybe because he hadn't completely outgrown his 'hero' phase, maybe for some other reason, but he decided to become involved in the emerging project of creating human warriors capable of standing against the invaders. This led him to joining a Gendo Aoi-run biology laboratory which was commonly known just as lab #13...

* * *

Since the laboratory was just started and had only a few employees, Gendo himself was introducing Naruto to his new colleagues. Having just visited the lab's resident genetics expert, postgraduate Scarlet O'Hara, they were on their way to the last office... Just when Gendo was about to open the door there, his mobile rang. Since the blond shinobi wasn't even trying to eavesdrop on that conversation, its contents would forever remain a mystery to him, but he still did notice that his guide's face change its expression a bit during the call: apparently something important and not really good was reported to Gendo.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-san." The leader of the laboratory #13 said as he opened the door to the last office and stepped inside. "But I'm suddenly needed elsewhere and won't be able to introduce you to the girls." He paused for a moment, summoning one of his employees with a sign of his hand. "This is our PR officer, Kurt Mackin, and I think, he'll be happy to do that for me." And with a quick nod, Gendo disappeared out of the office.

Kurt turned out to be a tall well-built man with bright-red short hair and tanned skin. He had a claw-shaped earring in his left ear and he wore shades even indoors, so it was impossible to see his eyes. But Naruto didn't need that to know who was in front of him: his chakra sensing ability was more than enough...

"You?!" He almost shouted while a bit rudely pointing to the Kyuubi in the human disguise. Who would have thought that he and Kurama will meet again and like this? The nine-tails just shrugged, but before it could say anything, a blond girl of about fourteen years old, who so far had been reading some book on the couch in the far corner of the room asked him a question:

"You know him, Kurt?" The redhead turn to look at her.

"You can say that, Maria. You can say that..."


	45. HP & Diablo III x-over :: Xiansai Potter

**Harry Potter & Diablo series crossover :: Xiansai Potter**

_An idea that had been bugging me for some time now. The premises is a cliché of young Harry wishing not to be there with Dursleys and getting transported away to some other world or universe. Unfortunately, I still don't have a complete plot line for this, so this stub will be in the form of several rather short and rather disconnected snapshots._

* * *

**~/ *** \~**

Opening his eyes – along with the new levels of intensity of his headache – brought the young wizard a proof that he indeed somehow had regressed in his age. That, and he definitely wasn't in the Yshari Sanctum anymore as he could see no signs of Caldeum anywhere. Nor he was on the Xiansai island either: instead of cold yet beautiful snowy mountains, he was now surrounded by some birch copse in a temperate climate zone.

Sitting up was quite a challenge for Harry, but the years of training as a battle-wizard allowed him to do that regardless of both his brain-splitting headache and his now-too-large-for-him armor. Looking around, he saw his partner of the last three and a half years lying not far away from him and was experiencing a similar problem of sudden de-aging. Though, from what he could see, the dark-haired beauty was still unconscious at the moment.

"I'm never ever following your ideas about mixing those damned shadow magics of yours with my temporal ones again." The green-eyed master of arcane arts said, doing his best to glare at his partner, who, so far, appeared to be blissfully unaware of her current predicament...

* * *

Thankfully it was close to mid-summer there, so it was pretty warm and so neither of the two de-aged warriors had any real problems with making some temporary clothes – either of them had enough gold on their person to buy themselves several full sets of finest armor once they were back to the civilization... Meanwhile, Harry did his best to tuck his shirt into his pants, which now were girded tightly somewhere around his upper stomach. Thankfully, all this atrocity was hidden under his black wizard's cloak, and some small application of cold magic kept him from getting a heat-stroke in these too warm for the season clothes.

Beth, on the other hand, utterly destroyed any stereotypes about Demon Hunters that her partner might still have had. After all, who would have expected THAT from usually grim and Gothic knight of cape and crossbow? Yet, there she was, wearing just a single piece of cloth tied around her otherwise bare (and suddenly much flatter) chest like a bikini top, while her pants were turned into shorts that barely reached her knees. Still, her crossbow on her back and quills full of deadly bolts on her hips made it clear that Beth was as dangerous as ever...

The greatest challenge for both of them, however, was doing something about their shoes. But one of the brightest wizards of the Yshari Sanctum and Natalie's little grand-niece were quick to find a workable solution to this problem.

**~/ *** \~**

It took the duo several hours of walking, but they finally reached some human settlement – a small village of about twenty houses – and judging by the strange way the local pub was named, the bartender there could have had some information they needed. Namely, he could point them to this kingdom's magical center.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the locals didn't accept Westmarsh gold and preferred some other currency called 'galleons'. A blazing with white-hot fire arrow aimed at man's face, though, quickly changed the pub owner's ideas about the cost of the information they needed, and he was rather happy to share it for free. And from what they had learned from the bartender, they were in some country called United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which meant that unless the political and geographical maps had changed overnight, they no longer were in the world of Sanctuary.

This could have been a problem, but having spent years if not a whole decade of their lives on the battlefields, both Harry and Beth had learned to adapt to anything and everything the life could throw at them. So, at moment they were more concerned with getting a proper gear for themselves or having their age problem fixed than with solving the mystery of their dimension hopping... Thus, using a very strange transportation method involving throwing some powder in a lit fireplace and declaring their destination, the two of them 'rode' to another pub, which, apparently was located at the entrance of the largest magical district in this country.

The bartender there was much more friendly and told them how to get into that magical district that his pub had was connected to without needing any form of coercion. And while the task of finding the right bricks on the wall that served as the gates to the magical district was a bit of a task even with the instructions given, a minute later Harry and Beth were walking down the street that looked somewhat like a mixture between the trading lane in Lut-Gholein and a Tristram street.

The duo's first stop there was a bank – obviously – as they were in need of local money, and while they were walking towards Gringotts, which apparently was the only bank out there, they noticed that local magic users didn't seem to be using enchanted weapons, staffs or even reds like Harry's. And, to be honest, not seeing others' potential weapons was making the pair rather uneasy. On the other hand, them so blatantly displaying their own weapons ensured that local magicals didn't dare doing anything untoward with them...

"So, this is the Gringotts." The de-aged Yshari Sanctum wizard said, as the duo stopped in front of the white marble building of the magical bank, which, by the looks of it, was ran by some sort of humanoid creatures. "Let's see what our fortunes are worth here?" Harry asked rhetorically, as he nodded towards the doors of the bank. His partner nodded back and the two of them headed for the doors... But the moment they came withing five feet of the said doors, the duo found a couple of wicked spears crossed in front of them...

While their bodies were smaller and weaker than they were used too, in a blink of an eye, Harry had his custom jezl – carved from the fang of the siegebreaker beast he had helped slaying, incrusted with s shard of the Worldstone – in his right hand and his source in his left hand, ready to unleash every bit of his magic upon those who wished him or his Beth harm. Likewise, Beth was covering his back with her crossbow trained on the goblin that dared to raise his weapon against her and hers.

Thankfully, the creatures guarding the bank, while not allowing them entrance, didn't seem intent on outright attacking them. Nor they seemed to be offended or enraged by the duo drawing their weapons in self-defense. Still, the whole situation was attracting too much attention, both from inside of the bank and from the street just outside it. And if it wasn't resolved quickly...

Indeed, not a minute after the whole thing started, a squad of armored and armed goblins poured out of the bank, followed by another goblin in what could be called a business suit. The later goblin exchanged some words with the guards in the language neither Harry nor Beth could understand. And judging by the way the creatures kept snarling and showing their pointy teeth off, they might actually be better not understanding them.

"Humans!" The suit-wearing goblin finally turned his attention to the duo, and it was rather hard to miss animosity in his tone. "What were your intentions in bringing these weapons onto the goblin soil?" Harry and Beth looked at each other – still having their weapons up and ready for a fight – before the battle wizard (now inconveniently in child's body) spoke.

"Ability to use magic, in any shape or form, is a weapon on its own, yet you seem to have no problems working with those, who have the tools for casting spells less obvious." The suit-wearing goblin, as well as the guards that had started this whole mess by crossing their spears in front of the duo, all now looked decisively uneasy. The silence that followed was just as uneasy...

"Very well, let them pass." The suit-wearing goblin said to the guards, who almost immediately withdrew their spears and once again assumed 'ready' stance. Then he addressed Harry and Beth: "Humans, Gringotts bank will serve you today, but under the condition that this squad of guards will accompany you anywhere inside." The pair of dimension-travelers looked at each other, before nodding in acceptance of these conditions and returning their weapons to their proper places on their selves... The duo made their way into the bank and then to the nearest free teller.

"What do you need?" The goblin there asked in a highly-annoyed tone, but it had no effect either on Harry or on Beth. Instead, the young wizard pulled a single Westmarsh Kingdom coin from the pocket dimension where he stored his wealth and placed it on the counter.

"Can these be converted into local currency?" The goblin picked up the coin and took a good look at it. He didn't know where it came from, but even without any special tests he could say it contain quite some precious metals. Though, to get the true worth of this coin, he needed something more than his no matter how acute senses.

"What is it?" The teller asked, as he continued studying the coin.

"This is a Westmarsh currency coin. Roughly sixty percent gold, thirty five – silver, five – copper and the rest are admixtures." The goblin squinted at him, obviously having never heard about the Westmarsh Kingdom. "I intent to convert about one hundred fifty thousands of these coins into local currency." That was quite a bit of money, actually: in Sanctuary one could hire a regiment of first-rate mercenaries for an extended period of time for less.

"I will have to discuss this with my superiors. Rustfork..." Almost instantly a much younger goblin appeared. "...Will guide you to a waiting room #4, where you should wait for Gringotts' answer." Not really having any alternative, Harry and Beth nodded and followed Rustfork as he guided them into the depth of the bank. Of course, they both did their best to memorize the way the went, in case the things turn ugly and they will have to break out of the building...

* * *

The long wait they had to endure in the damn room, though, was worth it, and they needn't have worried about forcing their way out: the goblin authority agreed to pay them in local currency for the precious metals they could salvage from the Westmarch coins. The rate could have been better, but still, thirty five thousands galleons looked like something that could last them for several years in this new world. Still, there one more thing, before they were free to go...

"Do you wish to take all galleons with you, or do you want to open an account here at Gringotts?" A goblin that was apparently even higher in the rank than the one that met them at the doors of the bank asked. The dimension-traveling duo looked at each other, before Beth spoke:

"And what are the advantages of having an account? Also, what the the conditions?" The goblin that had spoken to them was quiet for a couple of second, before he answered the questions, while handing them a scroll that seemed to have materialized in his hands.

"You can find answers to all these questions in this vault-rent contract draft." Gesturing towards one of his subordinates, he continued: "Ask account manager Sharpspear for more details, if you find yourself interested by our proposition." Once he was finished, the senior goblin left, leaving Sharpspear behind to work with the potential clients...

Based on what they had learned from the scroll, opening a vault here would benefit them if they were to stay in this world for more than six months – the longer they stayed, the greater benefit there will be. And since at the moment Harry didn't even have an idea of how to return back to Sanctuary, they were stuck there for some time.

"We would like to open an account here for six month. With the possibility of renewal. Our initial deposit will be twenty thousands." The Xiansai-raised wizard said finally. Sharpspear nodded as he started working on the contract.

"Under what name do you which your account to be?" The goblin asked as he had almost finished filling in the contract draft. "I will need a full name." He added quickly. His two clients – quite unexpectedly, as this request shouldn't have caused such reaction – exchanged glances emphatically. The truth was, Beth had no family name as far as she knew. Neither did her great aunt Natalie, actually. Thankfully, her partner had one, though he rarely used it.

"Put it under Harry Potter's name." The master of arcane arts said. And soon as he named himself, the goblin's face changed slightly. Unfortunately for Harry, reading the emotions of not-humans wasn't something that he excelled at, so he didn't have a first guess about what was going through the goblin's head. But it didn't take him much time to find the answer anyway, as Sharpspear spoke:

"Harry Potter you say? I say we have you do a blood test, and if you are indeed of Potter bloodline, you shall gain access to those monies." Beth turned to look at her partner.

"You're from here, Harry?" She asked quietly.

"I... I don't know. The first memories I recall clearly are of the Sanctum." The dark-haired now-boy replied softly, while thinking about the chances of him really originated from this ...more peaceful world. And if that was true, what would it mean for him and Beth... "Very well, let's do this test." He stated then with a slightly fake confidence.

"I will require seven drops of your blood." Sharpspear said, handing him a stone basin covered with runes and a pretty simple dagger. But Harry accepted only the basin, and instead used one of his own knives – even if he was a wizard, he had weapons other than his wand on his person. And he would never ever cut himself with an unknown dagger. Once the required seven drops of the blood were inside the basin, Harry returned it to the goblin, who then placed it onto a parchment. Then Sharpspear tapped some rune on the basin with his long clawed finger and the whole array lit up with deep red. Several seconds later an entire genealogical tree drew itself on the parchment. "It appears that you are indeed of Potter bloodline." The goblin said finally. "And magic declares you to be of age, thus you will be given access to your family vault, while your trust vault will be closed and merged into it."

"Alright." Harry said. "Now, if this is possible, I'd like to have all relevant information about this Potter family vault today." Sharpspear nodded, before replying:

"I shall send you the senior account manager Goldsaw then. He's the one overseeing Potter estate."

**~/ *** \~**

Getting new everyday clothes for their younger selves was not a problem for Harry and Beth. Well, for the Demon Huntress it was a bit: the shops of the magical world sold only robes, and she couldn't stand them. Thankfully, the non-magical world which was easily accessible through the pub called 'the Leaky Cauldron' had a much better assortment of clothes...

Unfortunately, even if they now owned enough gold to last several lifetimes in this world, the duo found it just impossible to legally buy any armor of even decent quality: only some sort of militia called 'aurors' were allowed to have battle-grade armor. And what armor they could legally get their hands on was... well, they would never be comfortable in something like that even in a warded camp, much less in a heat of a battle. Even worse, the merchants didn't even want to adjust the sizes of the armor Harry and Beth already had.

But when 'legal' did stop the two of them? Of course, venturing into the darker parts of the magical district was not exactly a great idea when you looked like a pair of innocent eleven years old kids, but a menacing-looking spiky ball covered with fire that Harry had summoned as his temporary familiar was enough to keep the outlaws from outright attacking them. And what the duo did to a drunkard who still tried ensured that others kept their distance...

Eventually, they found a shop where they could buy something that would resemble decent leather armor – not all that great after their customized armor, but something that would do for now, especially since it didn't look like they'll be fighting hordes of demons any time soon... And since these armors weren't as bulky, they could wear them hidden under their casual clothes and thus not draw too much attention to themselves...

**~/ *** \~**

It was August twenty second, nineteen ninety one, and one Albus Dumbledore was not a happy man. Why? Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived and the centerpiece of his plans for the Greater Good, was supposed to start his schooling at Hogwarts this year, but... The boy didn't receive any letters the manipulative headmaster had sent him, and when the old warlock went to check on the boy, it turned out that neither he, nor his relatives were where they were supposed to be.

Tracking the Dursleys down was not exactly easy, but Dumbledore still managed it pretty quickly. Only to find out that he was less than welcome in their house. The house where no person named Harry James Potter lived... And since the Dursleys were no forthcoming with the information he needed, the ancient warlock had to use some legilimency to find out what had happened to the key element of his plans for the Greater Good:

Apparently, Harry Potter managed to vanish from #4 Privet Drive several years ago. And his monitors didn't even detect that for some reason... Than again, he probably should have read the manuals first – maybe he just didn't read the signs from those devices right?

Anyway, the boy-who-lived was missing, and it didn't spell anything good for Dumbledore, especially since the old wizard was telling everyone that he had the boy safely hidden away. Thankfully, so far the Hogwarts headmaster managed to stop this information from leaking into the press, but, unless the boy suddenly reappeared, in less than ten days everyone will know about this fiasco. And all the blame will be laid squarely at his feet – Dumbledore was no fool to think that something like this will not spell the end of his political career... And if that happened, who would lead the magical Britain towards the Greater Good?

Since the information about Harry Potter being missing was highly classified at the moment, Albus couldn't really employ anyone to search for the boy, and he himself was too busy with the school and with the Wizengamot to look for him himself. Of course, the aged warlock wasn't doing nothing: for example, he frequented to the Diagon alley and 'the Leaky Cauldron' in the recent days – while the chances that he would meet the centerpiece of his plans here were meager at best, it was still better than nothing.

And today, it looked like Lady Luck finally smiled at him: as he entered the pub, he noticed a pair of eleven years old sitting in the dark corner – a boy and a girl, who despite their best stood out pretty much out of the crowd of the pub frequenters. The girl did that more so than her partner, especially with her more muggle clothes and her crossbow, but Dumbledore didn't care who she was as his eyes were focused on the boy that sat there with her. With those dark unruly hair and emerald-green eyes, there could be no mistake: this boy was missing Harry Potter! Maybe the situation was still salvageable.

The manipulative Hogwarts headmaster headed towards the duo. And while neither pre-teen was looking at him, it was quite clear that they were aware of him approaching: the girl was discreetly reaching for some hidden weapon she had in her almost knee-high boots, and Harry somehow created an almost transparent cocoon of magic around himself. Without using his wand in any noticeable way. That was not Harry Potter that Dumbledore had expected, but... well, he will have to work with what he had – the Greater Good depended on it!

"Good afternoon." The old warlock greeted, trying his best (and failing quite badly) at projecting his 'grandfatherly' image over the two children in front of him... Well, children by their bodies, Albus had to correct himself: that mannerism and those eyes he saw could only belong to war veterans. And this was making him decisively uneasy. "Can I inquire, whether or not you're Mr. Harry Potter?" The Hogwarts headmaster asked, looking at the dark-haired boy.

"That would be me, though I usually go by just the first name." The said boy replied, causing Dumbledore to smile inwardly – he had found his most important chess-piece. But before he could say anything else, the green-eyed Potter continued: "What do you want?" The old warlock wasn't expecting this question to be asked so bluntly, so it took him a second to recover his wits. He reached into his ...extravagant robes and pulled out a think envelope with a huge red wax seal on it.

"This letter was supposed to be delivered to you about a month ago, but our postal services were unable to locate you back then." The aged wizard said as he tried to hand Harry the envelope. Much to his surprise, though, the boy didn't accept it right away, and, instead, waved his left hand around it, causing some bluish-white wisps of energy flow into the parchment. The boy was not supposed to know any real magic, let alone any wandless one! After several seconds of nothing happened, Harry nodded and finally took the envelope from Dumbledore. The young Potter drew a small trowing knife from inside of his robe's sleeve and used it to open the wax seal of the envelope. Pulling the letter out of the envelope, he scanned it with his eyes, before laying it onto the table and looking at the old warlock that was standing there patiently.

"This is an invitation to a school of magic, right? I have several questions that you'd need to answer, before I make my decision about this." Just from the look on his face, it was clear that Dumbledore was not prepared to dealing with Harry Potter this mature and independent.

"Yes?" The Hogwarts headmaster inquired.

"Question number one: will my partner be able to follow me there?" The green-eyed wizard asked while gently placing his hand on the top of Beth's. This was not a question that the aged warlock was expecting to be the first one. Or at all: he thought that the boy would be too overjoyed about the opportunity to study magic to worry about anything else. Still, he needed to answer this if he wanted the centerpiece of his plans anywhere near Hogwarts.

"Is ...your partner capable of performing magic?" Harry looked up at him.

"Define magic you are asking about." Was his reply. "My partner is capable of feats that go well beyond the limits of a normal human, yet most of those are not normally classified as arcane arts." Normally, only the elemental runes and some of the curses of the Demon Hunters were classified as 'magic' by the elders of Yshari Sanctum...

Judging by the look on old warlock's face, he had no definite answer to this question. It was actually quite funny: a thousand years old school taught subjects in the area of knowledge that even the headmaster of the said school couldn't describe easily.

"Good deal of the subjects taught at Hogwarts is a wand-based magic." Dumbledore replied finally. "But there are also classes that do not require wands and can actually be taught – to one degree or another – even to muggles." Seeing confused faces of the duo, the old wizard elaborated: "That is to say non-magical people." He made a small pause, before continuing again. "I'm sure that Hogwarts will be able to accommodate your partner, Mr. Potter, though we will have to perform several tests to determine what courses she will be able to attend." Before Harry could say anything, though, the aged headmaster added another bit of information: "Though, you must understand that Hogwarts is not completely budgetary institution and while your schooling was prepaid by your parents before their untimely deaths, nothing like this was done for the young lady next to you. Depending on the number of courses she will be attending, should you decide to come to Hogwarts, I can make certain discounts for her, but the rest of the fee still needs to be paid." The green-eyed young wizard nodded slowly.

"Alright, second question: from what I could get from the letter, this school is a boarding one. What are the rules that are in place there?" Once again, Dumbledore got a feeling that he was talking to some very picky parent, instead of a child that should be eager to learn magic. Yet, he needed to answer, and do so in a way that would make Harry decide to come to Hogwarts and, thus, ensure that the plans for the Greater Good are carried out...

* * *

Those talks lasted for a couple of hours, during which the manipulative warlock strangely felt like he was not-exactly-good student standing in front of madam Marchbanks during OWLs. This definitely was not Harry Potter that he had been planning for, but he will have to do with what he had if he was to achieve the Greater Good. And while the boy hadn't asked for anything outrageous, some of those requests didn't sit well with the Hogwarts headmaster. Especially no uniforms, no sorting for the girl and a private room for the two, no matter which house they ended in. Still, those were reasonable sacrifices to make in the name of the Greater Good, and thus Dumbledore agreed with them.

**~/ *** \~**

Of course, neither Harry nor Beth held any love for the transportation methods the local magicals used, but even they had to admit that floo network was not all bad – it allowed them to reach the Kings Cross railway station really quickly and without any need to go into super-busy London downtown... And since they did arrive to the platform 9¾ quite early, finding an empty compartment for themselves wasn't a hard task for the duo.

Once seated, Harry, being his usual self, continued reading his textbook on transfiguration: the subject that more or less didn't exist among the magical arts studied at the Yshari Sanctum. Meanwhile, Beth, chose to doze off, ending up snuggling into his side... The young Potter didn't mind it – despite having been an item for about three years and going all the way with their relationship, they rarely were simply intimate like this – and, instead, just used some wandless telekinetic magic to shift his partner into a more comfortable (for both of them) position.

Unfortunately, this calm 'atmosphere' didn't last long: the train hadn't even departed yet, and they had already been disturbed. The said disturbance was a red-haired lanky boy hell bent on becoming Harry's best mate, while pushing to see some scar. And, even though the green-eyed wizard told him upfront that he wasn't interested in his friendship, the redhead persisted. Therefore, to get rid of this annoyance, the Yshari-raised mage had to use a directed force-push to throw the boy out of the compartment, before slamming the door shut in front of his nose with some telekinetic magic.

Since this encounter completely woke Beth up, the Demon Huntress decided that she should occupy herself with maintaining her equipment for the duration of the train-ride. And while this did turn the compartment into a small workshop, the young Potter didn't mind this as his partner wasn't making much noise and didn't distract him from his reading... This time their peace and quiet lasted a bit longer, but they got another visitor about forty minutes after the train departed.

"I've heard that..." A blond boy, who appeared to be very arrogant and full of himself, started as he swung the compartment door open, only to stop with an 'eep' when he noticed a throwing dagger pointed at his head.

"Have you not being taught to knock first?" Beth asked as she lowered her hand: she had almost thrown the knife she had been cleaning on reflex. "I could have killed you. And, you know, getting blood and brains off my blades is such a bothersome task." Well, not really, but she needed to present her toughest side to the intruder. Anyway, that worked as the boy turned almost unhealthily pale, mumbled something rather unintelligible out and retreated hastily with his two 'bodyguards' following him... The two dimensionally-misplaced powerhouses looked at each other and, once Harry shut the door closed again, they returned to what they had been doing before they were so rudely interrupted...

* * *

Over the next several hours the duo didn't have to deal with any more rude people barging into their compartment, though their door had been knocked on more than just several times during those hours: twice by the people looking for someone's toad, then by a witch selling some junk food and finally by a prefect making his round along the train...

Eventually, about half an hour after the sunset, they arrived to a village called Hogsmeade. There, the older Hogwarts students went to the carriages pulled by some skeletal winged horses, while the first years gathered around man who was at least three heads taller and four times wider than Harry had been in his twenty-years-old body. Shrugging, the dimensionally-displaced duo followed the kids along a dirt road that led to a dock with a small fleet of four-seat boats there.

A trip across the lake later Hagrid – that was the giant man's name – brought the first years into a hall where an adult witch had been waiting for them. The witch introduced herself as professor Minerva McGonagall, transfiguration professor, the head of the Gryffindor house and the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts. She also briefly introduced four house of the school and gave a general overview of the local disciplinary system. Then she left to 'make the last preparations for the sorting ceremony'.

This, of course, led the children to try their hand at guessing what this sorting will be like. And the de-aged involuntary dimensional travelers definitely were entertained by the more outlandish ideas – how could wrestling a troll define your house affiliation in a school?..

Suddenly the torrent of ridiculous ideas about the sorting stopped and several first years jumped away from a group of ghosts that floated right through a wall... Harry and Beth were already reaching for their weapons – back in Sanctuary, the ghosts were never friendly – but then the ghost of a plump priest asked rhetorically, whether the children he saw were awaiting their sorting. He and a man that looked a bit like a knight expressed desire to see the new students in their houses and then the whole group of ghosts floated away, allowing the dimensionally-misplaced duo to relax: apparently, the ghosts of this world were not aggressive towards those living.

Eventually, professor McGonagall returned and told the students to follow her to the Great hall for the sorting. The said ceremony started with everyone listening to a poorly-composed song which was sung by an animated dirty old hat. Then the deputy headmistress started calling the first years one by one, starting with Abbot Hannah, and each of those named student put the singing hat on. The hat then would say in which of the four houses the student in question belonged. Rather strange sorting system, but, then again, local wizards didn't seem to be too friendly with logic...

"Potter, Harry." The Scot witch announced and the Yshari-raised de-aged battle-mage sighed, before approaching the sorting hat and the small stool it sat upon. Picking the hat up, he spent a couple of seconds examining the thing, before finally replacing his own battle-grade shade with this piece of cloth.

'_Dirty old piece of cloth I am?_' A rather angry voice asked inside Harry's head. '_Though, I suppose I will not be as useful as your shade out there in the battlefield..._' The Sorting had added almost like an afterthought. '_Alright, back to your sorting..._' For the next several seconds the animated and thinking hat was rummaging through any memories the green-eyed Potter allowed it to access. '_You're quite an ambitious young man, aren't you? Salazar would love to have you in his house, but, I'm afraid, if I were to put you into Slytherin, several members of that house would leave the castle forever quite soon. In coffins._' The hat paused for a moment there. '_I guess, I shall sort you based on your desire to learn magics around you then. You better be..._' "**Ravenclaw!**" The last word had been said out aloud. Shrugging as this house affiliation meant little to him, Harry headed to his house's table to get rejoined with his Beth, who already had found seats for both of them...

**~/ *** \~**

Saturday and Sunday the de-aged Potter spent in the library, reading up as much as he could about the local magics, and for once Beth had joined him on his scholarly quest, as she was trying to find useful runic arrays that she could use for her arrows or daggers... Eventually, though, Monday came, and the classes were to start. And the youngest Rawenclaws had Potions with Gryffindors first thing in the morning that day. And since this class didn't require one to be able to wield a wand, Beth was attending it along with Harry... A minute before the bell was to ring, the Potions masted made his appearance, his black cloak billowing behind him in a dramatic fashion.

"What are you waiting for? Get in!" The man barked as he opened the classroom's door. The dimensionally-misplaced duo, having been standing close to the door, still got to choose where to sit, and without any hesitation they picked a desk right in front of the professor's table... Once everyone was seated, the Potions master – Severus Snape – took the roll call. Everything was quite fine, until he reached Harry's name. "Ah, Mr. Potter, our new celebrity." He looked up from the parchment and his eyes landed right onto the boy in question. And of course, he couldn't miss the fact the the green-eyed wizard wasn't wearing a standard uniform. "Who do you think you are, Potter, that you can do whatever you want? The second coming of Merlin? I won't stand this kind of behavior from anyone, much less from an arrogant useless brat like you!" A visible tick appeared on Harry's forehead. "What next, you will want to bring some dirty whore to the castle as your mistress? ...Ah, you already did..."

There was a flash yellow and purple light, and Snape found a very angry Harry Potter, surrounded by wisps of thick purple energy – Beth could recognize this as a halted Archont transformation – pointing his jezl with a ball of pinkish energy glowing at its tip to his heart. But that was not all, as the Potions master could feel a chilling breath of three magical constructs that surrounded him.

"**I'm feeling generous today, so I'm giving you this warning.**" The young wizard said in a voice that wasn't exactly human with all that unholy power it radiated. "**Insult me or mine ever again, and there will not be enough to fill a matchbox left from you.**" Possibly for the first time since the fall of the Dark Lord Snape was scared, but his hate for the Potter Spawn appeared to be stronger. Thankfully for the man, before he could say something stupid that would see him dead, Harry continued: "**It appears that I will not get a proper tutoring in potions in this classroom, and neither will my partner. We are leaving.**" Beth, who had her crossbow trained at the Potions master as well, nodded and quickly gathered her and Harry's things, before heading out of the classroom... Shaking his head, the de-aged wizard from the Yshari sanctum canceled his transformation and the hydra. "You're very lucky. Usually I kill without a warning insults like the one you have just made." And with those words he followed Beth out of the door...

* * *

Not even ten minutes after they had left the Potions classroom, Harry had been summoned by the headmaster, and, while for whatever reason she wasn't included into this 'invitation', Beth still tagged along... As it turned out, the old man wanted Harry to continue attending Potions with Snape, forgive the man for each and every insult made and accept any punishment that the greasy git would give him for disrupting the class today.

Of course, the green-eyed master of arcane arts flat out refused to do that, and no matter how strongly Dumbledore insisted that it was the right thing to do, the young Potter didn't budge. In the end, the old man caved in and decided to allow Harry and Beth study Potions on their own with a panel of teachers to evaluate their progress, but it took the green-eyed wizard threatening to leave Hogwarts to get this much out of the headmaster...

**~/ *** \~**

The rumors about what had happened during the Potions class spread through the castle like a wildfire, almost instantly earning Harry, and Beth by extension, quite a reputation. Though, while most of the Gryffindors and some Hufflepuffs were looking at them almost like they suddenly became heroes, their Ravenclaw housemates became rather spiteful towards them both for causing the problems in Potions class for them as well as for going against the normal academical process. And Slytherins were just angry with them for daring to raise their weapons at their head of the house... Still, the warning Harry gave Snape ensured that no one dared to speak about the dimensionally-misplaced duo ill within their earshot.

It was a DADA lesson with Hufflepuffs, when an arrogant brat name Zachariah Smith decided to openly question Harry's choice of his foci: jelz big enough to act as a decent club certainly stood out, when other students were using standard-for-this-world wands.

"What's with your wand, Potter? Compensating for something?" Having being way over twenty in his mind, the young Potter was not sure, whether it was normal for an eleven-years-olds to think about such things. Still, maybe magical children here developed a bit faster? Well, it was not like it was all too important... Yet, know form his experience in the Yshari Sanctum that not answering such question would only cause more problems for him, the green-eyed wizard deigned the other boy with his answer:

"Yes, I'm, compensating for abandoning a good melee-range weapon in favor of a more powerful focus. It sure is no match for a good enchanted sword in melee combat, but I certainly still can club your brains out with this one. And what your tiny stick is good for? I don't think you can even poke an eye with it without breaking it." Smith wanted to ask some more question, but Harry already turned his attention elsewhere and paid the boy's attempts to continue the talk no mind.

**~/ *** \~**

"Potter, why do you always hang around that muggle girl?" Michael Corner, one of the Ravenclaw boys in Harry's year, asked as the Transfiguration lesson was getting close to its end, and everyone wanted to go to the Great hall and grab some lunch. "I mean, not only she can't do all that cool magic we can, but she's a girl! And they are icky!" The Xiansai wizard glared at the boy, but still decided to answer his question. More to get him out of his hair than anything else.

"She is my partner and my mate..." He made a long pause, before adding: "And she is certainly not icky." Well, maybe the Corner brat was still in that phase? After all, Harry himself preferred to hang around with other male wizard trainees until he was thirteen or fourteen.

"Still..." Michael continued. "She can't do magic, that ain't cool at all." The young Potter directed another glare at him.

"Beth is a master of internal magics. You wouldn't believe the things she can do with her body." Harry said, referring both to his partner's speed, strength and agility on the battlefield. And her ...talents in bed: being a demon huntress sure gave her one hell of a flexible, toned and hot body. Not that any boys here should know about that... Michael let out some unintelligible sound, before turning his attention elsewhere, finally giving Harry a relief from his annoying-to-the-grown-ups eleven years old self.

* * *

While her mate was suffering though the wand-required classes inside the castle, Beth went outside to the shooting range that the giant of the gamekeeper had so graciously built for her. It was so nice of him to give her a place to train herself as she needed to get back to the level she was at before this damn de-aging had happened as soon as possible...

And having spent this morning at the shooting range, Beth was now on her way to the room she and Harry shared in the Ravenclaw tower as she needed to clean herself before lunch. She was just a couple of corridors away from the tower when the trouble found her: her way was blocked by a group of seven Slytherin boys that looked to be sixth and seventh years. And while to the normal firstie even one of those brutes would be quite intimidating, to Beth they weren't: she had faced hordes from the Burning Hells after all, and lived to tell the tale.

"What do we have here, boys." The biggest and meanest of the guys said as he drew his wand. "Some dirty little mudblood. What, your boyfriend decided to find himself some proper girl?" Being the more stable one in their duo, Beth was yet to attack them, though it looked like she will have to defend herself against these bully-hopefuls. Not that they would be of any problem to her... Still, did they not understand that causing her any harm would cause Harry go ballistic. And the demon huntress wasn't sure that there will be much left from the castle after her partner's payback. "Why don't we show her that her kind is not welcome here, guys?" The rest of the gang nodded and, drawing their wands too, started advancing to wards Beth, didn't look even a single bit scared of them.

Sighing, she willed the powers of the darkness into her body: this all needed to end quickly, and she needed to do it with melee combat, as just shooting down these bastard might give her and Harry some unnecessary problems... Enhancing their bodies with the power of the darkness was one of the demon hunters' high-end skills that granted them inhuman strength, speed and agility, shielded them form enemies attacks and even allowed them to steal others' life essence to heal themselves.

The Slytherin bullies finally got the idea that something wasn't going as they had planned when the an oppressive aura extended from the little girl's body, along with several smoky red and black tendrils that formed something resembling wings on her back. The girl then looked up at them, her face suddenly completely obscured by the shadow from her hood, save for her eyes that were glowing with an unholy yellow light.

"**Come at me, fools.**" It was said barely in a whisper, but they still heard her clearly. Something was very very wrong, but they just couldn't run away from a single little mudblood, so, hoping to overwhelm her with their magic, the gang attacked. Only for Beth to dodge their curses with ease, moving at superhuman speed as a trail of black smoke obscured her form...

Just as the second salvo of the curses left the Slytherins' wands, the de-aged demon huntress all but appeared between the front two, her fists implanted into their stomachs, making them double over. Making an almost casual step forward, Beth elbowed those two to the backs of their heads, ensuring that they would not participate in this fight anymore... And even though she was just a couple of meters away from them now, none of the five remaining boys managed to even nick her with their next curses.

Meanwhile, Beth moved to the next attacker and, grabbing him by his shoulder, threw him into his housemate, sending them both crashing into the corridor wall with enough power to knock them both out. Ducking under less powerful but faster spells directed at her, the little demon huntress charged at the remaining three bullies, who now finally appeared to get second thoughts about fighting her. Too late, though, as she had already sent two of those onto the floor, convulsing in pain and not likely to get up any time soon.

Turning her attention to the 'last man standing', Beth froze him in place with but her glare as she slowly walked towards him in a predatory manner. The guy, the apparent leader of the gang, didn't even offer any proper resistance when she picked him by the front of his robes and raised him into the air with just a single hand.

"**You're such an arrogant, spoiled brat.**" The girl with the shadowy wings spoke, still in that inhuman whisper. "**Those like you tend to die during their first hunt.**" There was a long pause, before Beth continued: "**What do you know about life anyway, little boy? By the time I was your age, I had already walked knee deep in the blood of the demons I have slayed.**" Somehow, the fearsome aura that the girl was projecting made the Slytherin see the ghosts of the demonic army of the Burning Hells, and it a very very scary sight... But before it all could become unbearable, it all ceased as the girl suppressed her aura somewhat. "**Begone!**" She whispered, before rather carelessly throwing him aside: she knew the teen was too shaken and scared to try attacking her now.

Making a couple steps away from the 'battlefield', Beth allowed the power of darkness to leave her body, reverting back to all-human from the form that Harry often called 'Angel of Vengeance'. She sighed: she didn't really like using this skill as, even though it looked impressive and, according to her partner and lover, extremely hot, it made her feel tainted... Well, she was on her way to hit the showers anyway...

* * *

*** AN**: Anyone who thinks they can write a proper story based on this, feel free to do just that. Just PM me the link to your creation


	46. Harry Potter :: Blood Serpent

**Harry Potter :: Blood serpent**

_Sometimes, the solutions to our problems truly lie in the past._

_This story stub is inspired by *oasiswinds' artworks at deviantArt. If you ever write a story based on this stub, please give her a credit for (my) inspiration.  
_

* * *

The old shaman of a tribe – the very one that would eventually flourish into the people of the great Teotihuacan city – looked up from the bird's entrails he was studying in attempt to predict the future. This time, the Gods actually allowed him a glimpse of what was to come, but the old man was not sure, whether what he saw was a good sign or not...

"What have you seen, Q'tal?" The chief asked, impatiently tapping his staff against the flat rock. The shaman shook his head as he was returned to the reality. Knowing that the chief, being a mage just like him, would instantly know if he tried to lie, with a heavy sigh Q'tal gave his answer:

"The lord of the West tells me that in many suns and many moons, a child of the white Jaguars shall come, blessed by the great sky serpent and cursed by the darkness. And he shall find his mate in the priestess, marked by Moon. Their power shall be great and will let the Great city prosper, but their true destiny lies far away, in time when the man with seven lives, having cheated Death, wishes to try burning the world again." There was a very long and equally uneasy silence.

"I see." The chief said finally. Just like his shaman, he could not really understand, what the Gods were telling them, but then again, the deities have always been keeping their secrets tightly guarded... But, maybe, his great grandchildren will know what this meant? Whatever this was, it ought to be important in the days to come, so the chief ordered the shaman to write down what he had seen today for the future generations... Thus, the first recording of the true prophecy in the history of the mankind was made.

** ~/ *** \~**

Several centuries since the recording of that prophecy passes, and by now it was all but forgotten by the people of the ever-growing civilization that would eventually give birth to the Aztec kingdom. And those that still remembered about the ancient recording all thought that what was predicted would never come to pass... After all, no one had any idea what those white Jaguars were, nor there were any signs of children with a mark of Coyolxauhqui.

Still, several of the older priests kept believing that one day the prophecy will be fulfilled, and so they listened to the news coming from all corners of the kingdom in case the Gods decided to meddle with the world of the mortals. For years nothing of any interest was happening, but then... then from a small village not far away from Ayutla came a word that an albino girl with a crescent-shaped mark between her shoulder blades was born.

After extensive studies of the prophecy recording and a lot of debates, the priests of the temple of Coyolxauhqui came to a conclusion that the priestess had finally been brought to this world. Once that was done, the priests had asked for an audience with their king. The ruler of Teotihuacan was rather skeptical about these news, but in the end he allowed himself to be talked into both bringing the girl in question to the city of Gods and into ordering his soldiers doing the border patrols to look out for anything that could be 'a child of the white Jaguars'.

**~/ *** \~**

Six years old Harry Potter was a strange child in a sense that he actually liked attending the classes while at school. Alas, this had nothing to do with his desire to learn; it was just Dudley, his spoiled cousin, couldn't really bully him during this time... Unfortunately for the green-eyed child, right now it was the lunch break, and the lardass and his flunkies decided that it was time to play some Harry-hunting and they didn't even bother to ask, whether Harry himself wanted to play or not...

And as the young Potter was running as fast as his legs could carry him – no one ever bothered to even try protecting him from the bullies – he never noticed that the edge of the roof he was running under had a multitude of icicles hanging from it. Normally that wouldn't matter at all, but today was a very warm day at the very end of March, and the sun had heated the metal-covered roof of the school just enough for the icicles to start falling down.

Being all concentrated on getting away from Dudley and his gang, Harry never noticed one of the icicles in front of him breaking off when he was almost under it. And since he had no idea about falling icy projectile, he did nothing to try and evade it, and so the piece of ice tore across the left side of his head, including his superficial temporal artery... A sharp sting of pain from this caused the young Potter to stumble and fall down on the ground, his life quickly fading away as he bled.

The blood pooling on the ground, though, never made Dudley or any of his goons to think twice about kicking the fallen boy with their legs as hard as they could. Still, after a minute or so, they all grew bored of this as they were getting no response from their victim. So, turning around, the bullies left to search for someone else to torment...

* * *

Feeling warm and somehow at peace, Harry dared to open his eyes. The last thing he remembered was running away from his cousin's gang just outside the school building, and now he was lying on what could be called a bed in the middle of the single largest room he had ever seen. It was huge – even to an adult – being at least a hundred meters long with its ceiling so high that only the tallest trees of the world had a chance of reaching it. The whole room was faced with perfect white marble and light streaming through large windows made it look otherworldly. Which, probably, it was, as human couldn't have built something as awe-inspiring as this...

Shaking his head, the young boy returned his attention to himself. He didn't feel any pain and running his hand along the left side of head showed that there was neither blood nor any signs of any wounds there. Then the green-eyed Potter noticed that he didn't have his glasses on, yet could see everything perfectly. Nope, this place, wherever it was, was not in the world of living...

Continuing studying himself, Harry noticed that all of his clothes were gone – somehow this fact managed to evade his attention until now – but a quick glance around revealed that next to the bed there was a set of fitting deep-blue clothes waiting for him. And while was very afraid of what his aunt and uncle would do if they ever saw him in these fantastic clothes, he knew that everyone should be wearing clothes in public, and no matter how deserted the room appeared, in Harry's mind it was a public place...

Now dressed, the green-eyed boy started wandering away from the place of his awakening as he was doing his best to take in as much of this majestic room as possible... Or he was trying until a sound or rough and not entirely-human cry reached his ears. It took Harry a minute of looking around and more pained cries to finally locate the thing that produced these sounds.

It was an ugly creature the size of a newborn baby with grayish-green skin that was peeling away at some places, revealing a disgusting flesh of the little monster. Still, no matter how bad this thing looked, it was obviously in pain and distressed, and, somehow, the young Potter just felt compelled to somehow clam it down. And he was about to make contact with the creature when a deep disembodied voice stopped him:

"_**It might not be a good idea to touch it. Connecting with such a tortured shard of soul would do you no good, young one.**_" Turning around sharply, Harry found himself face to face with a specter of an old warrior. The specter's body was made of ghostly blue flames that seemed to be almost liquid, and its eyes were bottomless pits of deep-blue darkness, possessing neither irises nor even pupils. "_**Fear me not, young one, I mean you no harm.**_" The specter said, seeing that the human child in front of him appeared to be scared. His words seemed to have calmed the boy down, but only a little bit.

"W-who are you, sir?" Harry asked a bit fearfully as he looked up at the ghostly warrior.

"_**I'm known as Alaric the eternal guardian and I'm tasked by my mistress to guide lost souls back onto their paths.**_" The ghostly man said, his voice as disembodied as ever.

"Am I dead then, sir?" The green-eyed boy asked once his mind had process what Alaric had said: given what his task was, it was not that hard to deduce that his mysterious mistress was no one other than Lady Death herself... The specter chuckled.

"_**One might think like that, but you're just a soul standing at the crossroad.**_" Now this was quite interesting... "_**You have several paths open for you, but you may choose only one.**_" The eternal guardian made a short pause. "_**You may move on to the next life, your memories of your past life dying with your body to let you start as a clean slate; You may also go back to the life as you know it, forgetting about this place... But there is another path you may take, it will not be an easy one, but you will get something you wish with all your heart if you overcome those difficulties.**_" Alaric made another pause, a bit longer one this time. "_**What is your choice, young one?**_"

This made Harry think hard. On one hand he was allowed to return back to his old life, but did he want to? That would mean that he will have to deal with abuse from his relatives again... No, this was not what he wanted. On the other hand, he could move on and have a new life, true, but were there any guarantees that it will shape up to be any better than his previous one? Finally, there was one more path for him to choose from. And while Alaric said that it would be full of hardships, at least there was a promise of something good happening to him as well, Harry thought.

"I... I wish to take the third pass, sir." The young Potter said.  
"_**Very well, young one.**_" The eternal guardian replied. "_**But before I let you follow the path you've chosen, there is something that I must do.**_" The blue specter waved his hand, and suddenly a multitude of ghostly chains appeared, all of them connected to Harry's chest. Most of these chains disappeared into the thin air, leading to places unknown, but a single one was connecting the green-eyed boy to the ugly baby-like thing that was still lying under the bed. "_**These bindings need not to exist anymore.**_" Alaric said and with a spectral sword that appeared in his hand, he destroyed all of these chains in a single strike. "_**Now you're free to go, young one.**_" Harry nodded, even though he had no idea how to leave this place. Apparently, he needn't have worried as once he did nod, his body started fading away while his sight was once again being consumed by the darkness... "_**Be safe, young hero.**_" Alaric murmured to himself, once the young boy had disappeared completely.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the real world, there was a soft and barely noticeable glow that healed Harry's body. Then, all of the blood that had bled form his wound onto the ground started rising into the air, forming a red mist that completely hid the little child from everyone's view... When the mist finally cleared, only the boy's second-hand clothes remained. Harry Potter himself was gone.

**~/ *** \~**

Quite a few things had changed in Teotihuacan over the last eight years. The previous ruler of the city of Gods had perished during one of the ceremonial fights, and the winner had taken his place as per tradition. This man was quite younger and came from the warriors caste. He did not believe that the ancient prophecy that his predecessor was taken with was worth anything and even denied the very possibility of such prophecy coming true. On his orders, the border patrols stopped looking for the 'child of white Jaguars'... Yet, the man was also quite practical and since Teca – the child marked by the Moon – seemed to possess a very strong affinity towards the ritualistic magic and was shaping to be one of the more powerful priestesses, she was left alone to continue her studies.

Tozoztontli or the Little Vigil festival was held pretty early that year, and like pretty much everyone who lived either in Teotihuacan or in its satellite villages was attending it. Thankfully, the facilities that prepared the flowers and roasted snakes for the ritual offerings were located in the close by forest, or one very interesting happening would have been missed completely, possibly, resulting in a death of an innocent child. But the facilities were there, and when young priest-in-training was returning there for the third portion of the goods, he noticed a blood-red mist rising from the ground in a nearby clearing.

The boy immediately called some of the elders there, before resuming his work. The elder priests, though, had absolutely no idea as to what was going on: they had never encountered anything like this, especially since the blood mist was nigh perfectly keeping its volume a constant, while getting thicker with time. And come evening, even some small lightnings began appearing in what now was a small but dense cloud of blood...

Around the midnight, under the pale light from the moon, the lightnings suddenly became much more frequent, before, at one moment, the all just exploded into a ball of blinding light... When the priests tasked with observing this mysterious happening could finally see clearly again, the cloud of the blood mist was gone, and on the charred ground lay a body of a very young and noticeably underfed boy. This boy had pale skin – much paler than anything one would normally see in Mesoamerican region – and dark unruly hair. He wasn't wearing any clothes, and though he didn't have any visible wounds or even scars, one needn't be a seer to see that this boy had life that was far from perfect. Not really sure what to do with this boy, the priests fed him a concoction to keep him asleep for the next day, and brought him to the central palace to let the king decide his fate in the morning.

The king's first impulse was just to have this strange pale child sacrificed during the Huey Tozoztli or the Great Vigil in three weeks, but he quickly squashed this desire. He was no fool and even though he himself could barely use active magic, he still could feel the power radiating from the sleeping boy: when he grew up, he will be as powerful as any of the elite guards or grand priests. Wasting such potential right now was not a smart movement. In the end, the king decided to let this mysterious boy live and had ordered him into the training program for the young warriors... Thus the life of Harry Potter – or, as will be called there in the future, Haatri – in the city of Teotihuacan began.

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Dumbledore sighed, feeling much more older than he actually was. The past several years hadn't been nice for him. And it all started with the disappearance of the Potter boy. Somehow, the boy managed to vanish into the thin air without as much as a single witness while he had been attending his muggle school. What was worse, all of his magnificent monitoring devices that had been attuned to the boy had stopped working. Just stopped. As if the boy simply ceased to exist – the reaction certain devices would have been really different, had the boy died... Plus, while his name had turned gray for some reason, it was still there on the Hogwarts' admission lists.

Knowing that he needed the boy found before his time to attend Hogwarts came, which at that point was still several years away, Dumbledore had organized a very secret search for the Potter child – no need to cause panic in the general population... But as the months flew by while he was getting absolutely no clues about the whereabouts of the missing boy, Albus began suspecting that he will have to resort to some trickery in order to cover this disappearance up.

Before long, summer of year 1991 came, and there still were no hints as to what had happened to the Potter boy, who had been missing for five years already. And with post owl refusing to even start searching for the boy, the old wizard had to admit it – just to himself – that the boy was really missing and won't be coming to Hogwarts... And there lay a big problem: everyone was expecting to see the young Potter among the first years this coming autumn. And his disappearance will undoubtedly be laid at his, Dumbledore's, feet, for his was responsible for keeping the boy safe.

In the end, on August, 15th, Albus was forced to give an interview in which he claimed the Harry Potter likely would not be coming to Hogwarts this year. Officially, because he was educated by private tutors and was far ahead of his peers, thus unable to fit well within his year group. Keeping the boy away from the public places for his own protection was another reason... Of course, Dumbledore had received many angry letters because of this interview – people wanted to see their savior in real life – at least the fact of the boy's disappearance was still a secret that only Albus himself knew.

* * *

The year that was supposed to be the Potter boy's first at Hogwarts had been very hard for Albus Dumbledore. Majority of his staff was giving him cold looks, as almost all of them had been waiting for a chance to teach the boy and he had denied them with keeping the boy 'hidden'. Much worse, though, was the fact in his naïve belief that the boy would magically appear in time for his first year Hogwarts to begin, Dumbledore had prepared a series of magical tests to evaluate the boy's potential. The final test even included a fake Philosopher's stone... Alas, the Potter boy didn't appear, and it was way too late to dismantle the tests as the school year has already began and such a suspicious activity would cause people to ask unnecessary questions...

Despite everything, though, the year started not that bad. But this period of relative peace lasted only until Halloween night. The agent of lord Voldemort had let a troll into Hogwarts in attempt to create a distraction for him to try and steal the (fake) Philosopher's stone. And it all wouldn't be all that bad, had not one of the first year Gryffindor girls be crying in the toilets at that time... By pure luck, Albus managed to stop the troll before the beast could deliver the finishing blow to the defenseless child. Still, the traumas the girl had received would have condemned her to spending the rest of her life in bed, were she in the muggle world. Of course, madam Pomfrey managed to completely heal the poor thing, which still took more than four weeks, but the girl had written to her parents about this incident and they had withdrawn her from Hogwarts during the Christmas break.

The second half of that school year – aside from the various rumors of why Hermione Granger was no longer attending school – started well enough. And for the most part of that semester everything was no worse than it had been on any other year. Sure, the news of something hunting down the unicorns for their blood were troubling, but as whatever was doing that seemed to wish no direct harm to Hogwarts students at the moment, Dumbledore just didn't do anything to stop it.

That changed on one evening in May, when the Voldemort's agent, which was behind the attacks on unicorns, decided to go after the fake Philosopher's stone. And with no Potter boy to play hero by defending the stone, Albus had to do that himself. Thus he had battled with possessed professor Quirrell in the chamber where the stone was hidden. Being a more experienced fighter, Dumbledore managed to win, but Voldemort's specter still go away, and the Hogwarts' headmaster had no doubts that sooner or later the Dark Lord will try to gain his body back once more...

* * *

The school year of 1992/93 was even worse for the Hogwarts headmaster. Like the year before, he was forced to make a statement that Harry Potter wanted to continue studying under the private tutors to conceal the fact that he still had no idea where the damn boy was. And it was quite clear to Albus Dumbledore that not everyone believed him – the cleverer witches and wizards were already piecing together the true state of things form his refusals to have Potter boy appear in public.

That (major) issue aside, the first two months of the school year passed relatively quietly. Then, during the Halloween feast a heir of Slytherin re-opened his or her ancestor's Chamber and used the horror that dwelled in it to petrify Mrs. Norris, caretaker Filch's beloved cat. For a week the heir laid low, before striking again: a second year muggleborn student from Hufflepuff was petrified. This was a clear message to everyone with half a brain cell: the heir of Salazar Slytherin was there, ready to cleanse the school from those unworthy of wielding magic.

Yet, even with attacks happening at least once every two weeks, Dumbledore could deduce neither the identity of the heir, nor the location of the fabled Chamber of Secrets. Hell, he even had no idea, what the horror from the Chamber was, though it definitely was some kind of a serpentine creature.

In the two months leading to Yuletide there had been six attacks in total, which left eight students and one cat petrified but still alive and one ghost that was... not itself at the moment and just hovered where it had been moved to. And knowing well that the monster from the Chamber of Secrets could kill, Albus was very very thankful that so far, through lucky coincidences, deaths were avoided. Alas, sooner or later this luck would run out, and... Hogwarts might not survive it, if a student, even if just a muggleborn, died.

Thankfully, the heir of Slytherin decided to take a small vacation after Christmas, and for almost a month there were no signs of any of his or her activity. This time allowed Dumbledore to come up with some plans to put in action, should the Board of Governors get a bright idea to oust him from his position of the current headmaster. Also, Albus managed to deduce what exactly the beast from the Chamber was: a basilisk. No one had died until now simply because for whatever reason they didn't look straight into its eyes – reflected gaze only petrified its victims...

One evening in the very beginning of February Dumbledore was patrolling the castle himself in a vain attempt to catch the heir of Slytherin in action. And he was about to head back to his office – there was so much paperwork that he needed to finish – when he heard some strange sounds coming from the girls' toilet of the second floor he was passing by. Since the sounds were what one would associate with such a place, Albus decided to investigate.

He opened the door, but before he could take a good look at what was going on inside the room, his faithful phoenix, Fawkes, flashed in front him and sent a wave of fire towards something big that was moving near where the sinks were supposed to be. The the fiery bird attacked that something, which turned out to be a basilisk, and clawed out its eyes, before it could recover and kill the Hogwarts headmaster with its deadly gaze... Dealing with the blind serpent was actually quite easy: just a single overpowered exploding curse into its open mouth had completely destroyed the beast's head, killing it there and then.

"Bravo, bravo, professor." A voice that Dumbledore hadn't heard since the late forties said. "I would never though that you could deal with my pet this easily. Alas, it was such a useful creature." A young Tom Riddle, who later became feared lord Voldemort, said as he entered the lavatory through the passage that undoubtedly led to the Chamber of Secrets. "No matter, I'm alive again thanks to that stupid little blood-traitor girl, and there is no way you can stop me now, old fool. Get ready to become a history, professor." Tom said, while training Ginny Weasley's wand at the Hogwarts headmaster.

The resulting duel, which he had barely won, showed Albus Dumbledore that his time was over: he was old and both his magic and his body were getting weaker. In a couple of years, he was sure, he'd have lost such a fight. But that was not the worst part: much more terrifying was the fact that Tom Riddle that he had fought was nothing more than a horcrux that became self-aware and gained itself a body by draining life from an innocent... And being quite sure that this horcrux wasn't the only one that Voldemort had made, Dumbledore shuddered at the thought of several such monstrosities running around simultaneously...

The dark knowledge that Tom Riddle could return to life at any moment aside, this incident also cost Albus the support of the Weasley clan: the family held him responsible for not being able to prevent their only daughter's death.

* * *

Almost immediately, Albus Dumbledore had been put under the official investigation, which aimed to find out, how he had allowed a student under his care to be possessed by a dark spirit from the horcrux, which later drained all of the said girl's life force, killing her. And while it was quickly confirmed that the old man couldn't really be held accountable for the fate that befell young Ginerva, the investigation wasn't closed. And Dumbledore knew that the reason for that was simple: there were those politicians that wanted him out of his offices, and those men weren't above bribing everyone around to continue digging dirt on him.

Thankfully, even after four months of the investigation, Albus still managed to keep the fact that he had no idea where Harry Potter was a secret. Though, for the most part it was because those people kept interrogating him about every little thing out of order that they had discovered within the Hogwarts castle... The old warlock shuddered to think about the questions he will have to answer once the investigation moved onto his other businesses.

At the beginning of July minister Fudge made his yearly inspection of the Azkaban prison. And for whatever reason, he decided that the most notorious criminal of the recent times, Sirius Black, could have his copy of the 'Daily Prophet'. A copy which had a photo of the Weasley clan on the front page. Apparently, this seeing this photo caused Black to act. No one was sure how he managed it, but four days after the minister's visit, the man escaped from the facilities.

According to the human guards, before his escape he was almost constantly repeating 'he's at Hogwarts' while staring at the photo on the newspaper's front page. Likely, the man didn't knew that Potter was studying under the private tutors and assumed that he was attending the school with the Weasley children. Thus, it was quite likely that Voldemort's right-hand man was heading to Hogwarts to finish what he had started when he betrayed Potters to the Dark Lord...

In the light of Black's escape from Azkaban, the DMLE switched their priorities from investigating Albus Dumbledore's misdeeds to capturing the prison escapee, and this allowed the Hogwarts headmaster to fix his businesses. Unfortunately, even though nothing incrimination had been found on him yet, he had lost a lot of his influence in the recent months, and so Albus was unable to prevent the Ministry for Magic from stationing dementors around the castle to 'keep the students safe'.

For several months there were absolutely so sights of Black anywhere in Great Britain, which only made the DMLE work harder to find the Azkaban escapee. Then, in early November he attacked Hogwarts out of nowhere, getting as far as Fat Lady's portrait into the castle. The guardian of the Gryffindor common room managed to stop him, but that didn't help any as the man seemed to disappear into nothingness before anyone had even a chance to respond. The Hogwarts grounds were scoured, but no signs of Black still being there were found.

Late in December, on the last Hogsmeade visit before the Christmas break, another kind of tragedy had almost happened. Apparently, the dementors stationed around the castle were getting hungry and the crowd of young witches and wizards that were so happy about visiting the village certainly looked like a feast to them. Only professor McGonagall's timely intervention had saved a group of sixth and seventh year Hufflepuffs from becoming soulless husks... After this incident, despite minister Fudge's protests, the Azkaban guards were shipped back to their usual habitat: it was not like they had stopped Black from entering the castle anyway...

The very next after the last dementor had left the Hogwarts grounds, Sirius Black made another attack. Though, for some reason, this time he wasn't targeting anything in the Gryffindor tower: the Azkaban escapee chose the storerooms as his target instead. And again, he managed to escape before the school's professors and a small group of aurors could apprehend him. Even more interesting was the fact that Black didn't curse or poison the food stored in the storerooms and, instead, had cursed the lives out of a great number of rats.

For the next three or so months, Sirius Black seemed to have disappeared from the face of the Earth again. That, though, didn't mean that the squadron of aurors that was now stationed at the castle was lazing around. These witches and wizards were constantly patrolling the castle and its grounds, ready to curse the Dark Lord's right-hand man into oblivion, should he decide to attack again.

That attack happened during the last days of March, when a Hogsmeade visit had been organized. Having used a large bush to hide himself, Black had jumped onto Ronald Weasley when the boy had been walking by. The Azkaban escapee tackled the boy onto the ground, but got his head blown up by a well-aimed _**Reducto**_ curse before he could do anything more than wrap his had around a rat that was riding in Weasley's chest pocket... No one even thought to ask why Black was attacking a rat – it was quickly decided that he had lost his marbles long ago in the Azkaban prison.

With Sirius Black's case finally closed, the attention DMLE had turned back to Dumbledore and his not-so-noble dealings. But the old wizard hadn't been sitting idle, and so the resumed investigation into his businesses wasn't giving as many results of a certain kind as some people would have liked...

**~/ *** \~**

Being an early riser, Albus Dumbledore often started working his way through his correspondence and paperwork at an hour that would be called ungodly by many others. This morning early in the summer of 1994 was no different as the old wizard was already in his office at half past eight, which was as soon as he had finished his breakfast... Albus picked up a roll of parchment with the Wizengamot seal on it and was about to start reading what other crazy legislation they wanted to pass, when fire in his floo came alive, indicating a call.

"Good morning, supreme mugwump Dumbledore, I hope I did not catch you at a bad time?" A short and almost as old as Dumbledore himself wizard from Mexico said. The Hogwarts headmaster stared at him for a moment: while it was an early morning here in Great Britain, it should be the darkest hour of night back in the Central America. To make a floo call at such a time meant that his colleague was facing some really serious situation.

"No, not at all." Albus replied, placing the parchment roll on his desk and getting to the fireplace to talk to his colleague on a more equal ground. "And good night to you, mugwump Manajuma." After a short pause, Dumbledore continued: "I have a feeling that this is not just a social call, so why don't we get straight to the business?" The other wizard nodded.

"Sharp as always, supreme mugwump." he said. "Indeed, around three hours ago a magical phenomenon that even our _**arcano busca**_ cannot identify was discovered in one of the alcoves behind the Tlazolteotl pyramid in the magical part of the Teotihuacan city ruins." Hearing the location his ICW colleague had specified, Albus couldn't help himself:

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, but isn't that the alcove where youngsters' couples like to disappear to?" From the days of his youth, Dumbledore remembered that that specific place had a reputation quite similar to that of the Astronomy tower of Hogwarts. Just on the world-wide scale. Manajuma chuckled in response.

"Indeed, supreme mugwump. Actually, it was one such couple that brought this phenomenon to our attention." The Mexican wizard replied. "Back to the problem at our hand, though. As I've said, even our _**arcano busca**_ fail to identify the phenomenon – all that they can say at the moment is that we're dealing with blood mist highly saturated with magical energies. But as you know, not all branches of magical arts are practiced in my country, and as the phenomenon might be dangerous, I would like to request your and your department of Mysteries help in determining the nature of the phenomenon." Albus nodded, he could understand Mexican ministry's desire to protect country's people well.

"Let me inform my deputy that I will be out of the country for now and contact Croaker. We will floo to your ministry in an hour." Manajuma nodded, before disappearing from Dumbledore's fireplace as the call was ended.

* * *

An hour later, Albus Dumbledore and several unspeakables that Croaker agreed to lend flooed to the Mexican Ministry for Magic, and almost immediately they were given a portkey that delivered them to the magical part of the Teotihuacan city's ruins. There, Albus could see wizards and witches from United States, France, Egypt, Japan and Brazil working around what looked like a thick cloud of blood mist hovering about two feet above the ground. The lightnings that stroke inside this cloud only made it look more mysterious... A quick conversation with his colleagues told Dumbledore that they had about as much idea about what that blood mist was as he himself did.

Another two hours passed, yet the most seven teams of highly-knowledgeable wizards from all over the world could say was that somehow this blood mist was indicating a place where the fabric of space and time was ripping apart. And since the cloud was getting bigger and lightnings in it were becoming more active, it looked like the moment when something will finally insert itself in this time was getting closer. Without any known means to stop this process, which was rapidly nearing its completion, the unspeakables decided that creating some defenses in case their 'guests' weren't friendly, was a good idea. So, within ten minutes, several fortified positions were erected around the alcove.

Since even the unspeakables were now preparing for an incursion, no one felt brave enough to continue researching, everyone just hid behind the barricades and waited... Around half an hour later, just as the first rays of the sun started peeking from behind the horizon, the cloud of blood mist exploded in a ball of light that left everyone utterly blind for several seconds.

Once he could see again, Dumbledore – like everyone else – peeked from behind the barricade. He might have expected many things: some alien monstrosity, a never-heard-before dark lord, a guest from the future... Instead, the anomaly brought just a couple of teenagers, both of whom appeared to be knocked out cold. That, though, didn't mean that this was just some random normal couple – not only their clothes looked like something from well before the arrival of Conquistadors, but the teens themselves were... unique.

The girl appeared to be around eighteen years old, and was undoubtedly an albino: her pale skin and light-gray mid-back long hair made that quite clear. She had a couple of lines painted across her face just underneath her eyes: a light-green line immediately above a deep-red one. The edges of her eyelids also had lines painted on them in the same light-green color. On her head there was a jeweled golden crown with a plume of multicolored feathers on it and her shoulders and her front was covered by a golden plastron which too was encrusted with multiple gems – a sign that she was a high priestess, a rank that usually took decades to acquire...

Underneath the plastron, the young priestess was wearing a silky light-green short-sleeved shirt with a vertical line on it front. The shirt, though, was quite hiked up, as her lover shamelessly had one of his hands underneath it... As for the lower part of her body, the girl was wearing a brownish-red knee-long skirt with a cut on the right side going to up to her waistline. This skirt was held on her waist by a thick carved golden belt, encrusted with more gems, with a ceremonial knife in a sheathe strapped to it. Finally, the albino priestess had big golden earrings with large green gems in them and a thick in-wrought golden bracelet on her left hand.

As for the boy... Despite being only around sixteen by his looks, he was dressed like an elite warrior. He was tall and well-built, with short and somewhat haphazardly-cut black hair. Just like it was the case with his lover, he had a red line pained across his face, that looked surprisingly European for someone who was an Aztec warrior from a millennium ago... He wore no chest armor, only a plastron made from many metallic scales and a jaguar skin acting as his cape with the beast's head serving as a helm. He also wore short and much skirt-like shorts made from some sort of leather. His belt was of golden color too, but was more utilitarian, especially with multiple poaches attached to it and two wicked daggers that were tacked into it. On his only visible arm – the other being hidden underneath his lover's shirt, no doubt feeling her rather generous breasts up even now – he had a steel bracer with some minor ornamental decorations on it. Finally, one could see a metallic bead of a piercing in his lower lip...

"What do we do with them?" Albus Dumbledore, asked after several minutes of silence – everyone was that shocked at the appearance of a teenager couple form the past.

* * *

After some discussion, it was decided that separating the two might not be a good idea. These two were obviously magical, and who knew what powers they might unleash in panic when not waking in each others' arms... Also, since they were a son and a daughter of the Aztec empire, they would certainly need a guide to help them adjust in the modern world – everyone was quite agreeable that sending them back to their proper time was impossible. And finding such guide would take time, as only select few still could speak that ancient language...

Thus, it was decided that the couple should be put in the enchanted sleep for the time been. And since they just couldn't be left where they had appeared, the unspeakables had transported them away, likely to some reservation, where the duo wouldn't be scared to death by a contact with all of the wonders of modern civilization once they were woken up.

As the misplaced-in-time duo was levitated away, something caught Dumbledore's attention, yet the old wizard couldn't put his finger on it at that moment. Only later, watching the incident through his pensive, Albus understood what exactly caught his attention back then: the young warrior had a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. Could this man somehow be the missing Harry Potter?


	47. Naruto :: Yin and Yang

**Naruto :: Yin and Yang**

* * *

Following their return from the Wave country, Naruto and his team were given a week off by the old man Hokage himself. But the blond boy could not make himself just rest, even after the adventure he had lived through: the event of the C-rank turned A-rank mission had showed it to him that despite all of his bravado, his actual ninja skills were... well, lacking. And because of that, he couldn't prevent Haku from dying like that – the effeminate boy, despite having been his opponent, was truly a good person deep down, and didn't deserve to die in such a way.

What's more, having adopted the ice user's views on the origin of the true power – it indeed came from protecting the 'precious ones' – Naruto just couldn't bear with the thought that he may not be able to protect his own precious people. He needed to be always able to protect them! And to do that, he needed to get ...even stronger than he was now. But with Kakashi-sensei busy training Sasuke in using those sharingan eyes, Iruka-sensei teaching the new batch of academy students and the old man still stuck in his office, the young Uzumaki couldn't think of anyone who could train him. And that meant that he'd have to get stronger on his own...

"What did the old man said about that?.." Naruto asked no one in particular as he found a nice and quiet clearing to train himself in. "One's strength comes from being in peace with oneself, I think..." Shaking his head, the blond sat down on a fallen tree trunk. '_Looks like I will have to try those stupid and boring meditating exercises..._' He thought to himself, before assuming what looked somewhat like a meditative pose he had seen quite some time ago in one of the Hokage's scrolls.

* * *

It took Naruto quite a lot of time to get anywhere with his meditating, and once he did, his world had faded into darkness. And once this darkness had disappeared, he found himself in a place that strongly reminded him of sewers under Konoha: dirty and dimly-lit tunnels with some mold-covered pipes on the walls and at least six inches of dirty water on the floor. And considering that this place was supposed to represent his mind... Alas, there was little that Naruto could do to change this place into something better.

Anyway, now that he was here, the blond shinobi needed to find something that will have him at piece with himself. Not seeing anything that could help him in his immediate vicinity, the container of the fearsome Kyuubi no Yoko decided that he should investigate the sewers that apparently were the representation of his mind.

It took him some wandering along the tunnels, but in the end Naruto reached a large chamber that was separated into two halves by some impossibly huge gates, held together by nothing more than a large sheet of paper with a kanji for 'seal' drawn on it. And even though the half of the chamber behind the gates was filled with darkness, the blond shinobi still could make out a ginormous beast lying inside this 'cage'. And since he was sure that the only monster he was housing inside of himself was the Kyuubi, the young Uzumaki assumed that the silhouette belonged to the said bijuu. The blonde made several steps towards the gates, but stopped dead in his track once the beast lazily opened one of its eyes – huge, blood-red with a slitted pupil – and glared at him.

"**And here my container decides to grace me with his presence.**" The Kyuubi growled, baring its fangs, each noticeably longer then Naruto himself was tall. And even though the beast was safely locked by the seal, the waves of power still radiating from it made it quite clear to the boy, why the people though of it as a natural disaster: something this powerful could not be anything else...

"And I must say I'm not that impressed with him either." Another, and surprisingly feminine voice said. "To think that this scrawny loudmouth of a brat is the actual us... No wonder people don't treat us with much respect." Naruto scowled as he tried to find the speaker, that hid somewhere in the shadows. Before he could shout for the still-hiding ...someone to reveal him- or her-self, the Kyuubi let out a breath, which created a cloud of ashy smoke, complete with sparks of fire. And this allowed the young Uzumaki to see a definitely female someone leaning against one of the gate's gigantic bars. "Looks like I've been seen." The unknown girl said with a shrug as she straightened up and walked into the light.

She appeared to be several years older than him, around sixteen or so... Actually, if not for her hair, which was a bit darker and cut roughly just below her shoulders, she could have passed well for his **Oiroke no jutsu** transformation, Naruto thought. Well, for the transformation that was wearing actual clothes – a rather tight black T-shirt with a hand showing its middle finger drawn on the chest level in red; knee-long khaki shorts with several equipment pouches attached to them; black shinobi sandals; and equally black fingerless gloves, the left one of which reached all the way up to her elbow – instead of just clouds of fake smoke to keep people from seeing her privates...

Though, looking closer, Naruto could see that the girl's hair was actually more unruly than his own, despite being much longer; the whisker-like marks on her cheeks were deeper and darker than his own; and her eyes were colder, with some sparks of blood-red in the blues of her irises and her pupils were a bit slitted too.

"Who the hell are you?" The young Uzumaki demanded, even though the similarity between the two of them, despite the obvious differences, was a dead giveaway. The girl narrowed her eyes at him, before sighing deeply.

"And he's an idiot too." She didn't even think of lowering her voice, allowing Naruto to hear her opinion about him quite clearly. There was a long pause, after which the girl shook her head, as she decided to answer his question. "I'm you, dumbass." The blond shinobi gaped at the girl, unable to form any words in response to such a proclamation. "Well, it's more like I'm your darker self, your negative emotions and repressed thoughts and experiences that gained a conscious of their own." She paused for a moment then, before passing her body round with a critical eyes. "Well... As for why I'm such a sexy bitch, I don't know. But I like this body, it's totally hawt!" There was another period of silence as the two just stared at each other.

"Fine, whatever." Naruto finally said, deciding not to think about the reasons why his alternative self was a female anymore. He had more important things to do anyway. "A-Anyway, I'm here to..." The girl interrupted him, quite rudely too.

"To find an inner balance and get stronger, yada, yada, yada... Quite admirable that you decided to quit being a useless pussy and learn some useful skills, but why not steal that scroll full of cool jutsu again and teach yourself something else from it? As you are right now, I don't think your clones are useful as anything, aside from being a cannon fodder..." Then in a whisper that Naruto could barely hear, she added: "Though they could do well to give some slut a deliciously-good gang bang."

"What!" The blond shinobi cried out in indignation.

"Look, Ku-sama." The girl said in a sing-song voice as she addressed to the Kyuubi. "Our container is a little prude." Turning her attention back to the boy, she taunted:. "Don't tell me that I got the best end of the deal in everything, oh the real one." Getting serious again, she continued: "Anyway, the old man might still have been right: you can get stronger if you can control well everything that the nature gifted you with... And with our chakra reserves..." The girl trailed off. And after several moments of silence, she turned to look at the Kyuubi again. "Why don't we show him the true meaning of power, Ku-sama?"

The beast let out an affirmative growl, while giving her a look that even someone as dense as Naruto could easily interpret as 'you owe me for this one'. Much to the boy's surprise, his counterpart actually licked her lips as she got this message... A blob of orange-red chakra formed in front of the Kyuubi's nose, before floating out of the cage and encasing the girl completely in the shroud of energy, while making her look even more feral and ...hot?

The girl flexed her hand, making a grabbing motions, and the gigantic 'gauntlet' of the beast's chakra followed her movements perfectly. Done with this show, she gave Naruto the 'I'm coming at you' look. Then she disappeared in a reddish blur. A moment later she appeared in front of the young Uzumaki, throwing a surprisingly strong punch at him. And even though he managed to make a sloppy block, this attack still threw him across the hall.

Somehow, Naruto managed to recover before his sudden opponent could do anything else, and to protect himself against her next attack, he created a wall of shadow clones in front of himself. Only for the clawed chakra-arm to extend – growing even bigger – and dispel the doppelgangers in a single smooth motion. Then she tried to claw him too, but being better prepared this time, Naruto managed to dodge. Only for the extended chakra-arm to twist around in an impossible way and grab him, before throwing him against the wall. Hard.

Before he could do anything to extract himself from the wall, Naruto found his counterpart right in front of him, her body actually pressing against his – and was she not wearing a bra? – while her eyes, now as red as the Kyuubi's, locked firmly on his own.

"**This is the power of Ku-sama. I doubt he'd let you use it just like that, but even with your own chakra you can make a pretty good imitation of it**." Then she leaned even closer to him. "**And with how huge your chakra is, I wonder what else you have to match it...**" She whispered hotly, her lips almost touching his ear. Then she withdrew back to how she was moments before and continued in a more normal voice: "**Master something as simple as this, and I might think of teaching you something else to get more power, oh the true one.**" And with this she backed off completely, while simultaneously letting the cloak of demonic chakra to fade away. Then Naruto got forcefully pushed out of his mind and back into the real world...

**~/ *** \~**

'_Guess, I have no choice._' Naruto thought. Sure, he'd have preferred to indeed master this chakra cloak of his before actually using it in the real fight, but being swallowed by a gigantic snake that he was sure was a summon left him with no other options. Thus, concentrating hard, he willed a gigantic 'glove' of pure chakra to materialize around his right arm – he couldn't control more of the shroud well at the moment, and he didn't really more than this to make his escape from the snake's gut.

Doing a horizontal swipe, much like the one his counterpart had used to destroy his clones when they 'fought' in his mindscape, Naruto created a long torn wound in the summon's stomach. The hole wasn't big enough to let him out, but it was still quite fatal to the serpent, causing it to disappear in a large cloud of smoke. Unfortunately, the snake had been resting on a large branch of a gigantic tree of the Forest of Death when the young Uzumaki dispelled it, and so when it disappeared, the blond found himself in the midair, some fifty feet above the ground...

He panicked for a brief moment, before remembering that his chakra-gauntlet could stretch quite well and it could bend and twist too, albeit not as well as the chakra-cloak of his alternative self could. Thus, grabbing a branch some eight feet to his right and several feet above was not a problem, which undoubtedly saved the blond shinobi from a painful fall onto the ground.

"Now, I need to find Teme and Sakura." Naruto said to himself one he lowered himself safely on some branch he ended hanging above... With his thoughts all focused on finding his team and helping them out of the trouble – he was somehow sure that the snake's summoner was attacking them – he didn't even notice that he didn't thought about his pink-haired teammate as 'Sakura-chan'...

* * *

Sasuke froze in fear as a giant snake, summoned by the pale serpentine definitely-not-genin freak who attacked his team earlier, closed on him, intent on turning him and the pink-haired banshee next to him into its lunch. Much to the last Uchiha's surprise, something that looked like a giant clawed hand made from chakra collided with the snake's head just as it was about to devour him, causing the serpent to miss and bite the branch instead, getting it's fangs stuck in the hard wood. Following this strange chakra-limb with his eyes, Sasuke was surprised even more when he saw it was Naruto who had created it. Since when did the not-useless-anymore dead-last have such a skill?

"Ah, Naruto-kun, I see that you managed to survive my summon." The not-genin said in sickly-sweet voice, while ...its abnormally long tongue moved out of its mouth to taste the air much like a snake would do. The blond Uzumaki growled in response, before using his chakra-arm to pull himself next to his teammates.

"Eat this, bastard!" He shouted, while sending his chakra-arm atfter the serpentine freak. The said ninja dodged this attack quite effortlessly, but a moment later a worried frown appeared on its face as he surveyed the damage that the 'punch' did to the tree behind him. Deciding that it should deal with the blond annoyance quickly, before continuing toying with the last Uchiha, the not-genin made a single-handed handseal, before breathing out a powerful ball of compressed air towards Naruto.

The Kyuubi jinchuuriki though was prepared and, using his chakra-arm, swung under the branch he had been standing on, thus dodging the wind jutsu. Completing the swing, the blonde landed back on the branch and threw several kunai at the snake bastard with his not-chakra-encased hand. The freak casually sidestepped the projectiles, only for them to explode into huge fireballs that managed to burn the ...snake summoner's face, causing the skin to peel of, revealing another face. The face that unmistakeably belonged to one of the Konoha's greatest missing-nin, Orochimaru of the sannin.

"Kukuku, that wasn't nice, Naruto-kun." The man taunted as if he hadn't just been scorched by an explosion. This made the young Uzumaki let out a growl, before creating this chakra-gauntlet-thing around his other arm, before charging towards the snake summoner, intent to maim the man obvious in the blonde's eyes. Yet, despite Naruto's eagerness to pummel Orochimaru into the ground, the said man was an S-rank for a very good reason and he weaved between the Kyuubi jinchuuriki's attacks in a way that just screamed that he was toying with him.

Eventually – that is in less than a minute – the snake sannin grew tired of this and used his abnormally-long tongue to stop both of young Uzumaki's hands and lift the boy off the ground, seemingly leaving him defenseless to any of his attacks. At the same time, a purple glow surrounded Orochimaru's right hand while five kanji formed themselves above his fingertips. But before he could apply this seal to his capture for, Naruto surprised him by canceling his chakra-gauntlets and slipping out of the tongue's hold, the said 'appendage' not being fast enough to tighten its grip to prevent him from escaping.

Once he was free, the blond shinobi recreated the chakra-gauntlet around his left hand and tried to deliver a powerful punch to the serpentine man's midsection. He failed as the traitorous sannin sank into the branch he had been standing on. For several seconds no one had the idea where the man was, then he silently rose from the branch behind Naruto's back, the said genin remaining completely unaware of this. Sasuke tried to warn him, but he was way to slow, and Orochimaru managed to knock the young Uzumaki out.

"Now that this annoyance is dealt with, let's continue our little game, Sasuke-kun..." The man said in a creepy way, while licking his lips with his extremely long tongue...

* * *

To those with questions about why I made Naruto's darker self like this: as she herself says, she's the mass of suppressed impulses, thoughts and darker emotions that gained a conscious (and a manifestation in the mindscape) of its own. As darker thoughts usually tend to be more mature one, 'Naruko' appears to be older than Naruto. Her somewhat slutty behavior is a side-effect of Naruto trying to suppress his emerging libido. Her vulgar speech can somewhat be attributed to Naruto sometimes having to keep himself from insulting the people around him more than he does in canon. As for why she is a she... She represents a Yang side, which is attribute to being a female one. It's just that simple. She doesn't know anything about the real world that Naruto himself doesn't know, but she has a different perspective of things and can see solutions that Naruto himself doesn't. As for her prowess in using Kyuubi's yoki - well, she had been alone with the fox for long enough for some sort of a bonding between the two to occur...


	48. Harry Potter :: the Not-mage

**Harry Potter :: The not-mage**  
_Petunia Dursley nee Evans was a sister to a witch after all..._

* * *

The flames in the Goblet of Fire started calming down as the magical artifact had fulfilled its purpose: it had selected a single champion for each of the three magical schools participating in the Triwizard tournament. And the headmasters of the said schools, along with the officials from the British Ministry for Magic were about to join the selected champions in the antechamber when the flames in the Goblet rose suddenly. Then the artifact spat another charred piece of parchment. This shocked everyone so much that for a couple of seconds no one moved... Albus Dumbledore, being the first one to overcome the shock, was also the first one returned to the professors' table. Picking the charred piece of parchment up, the aged wizard read aloud:

"Harry Potter." For several seconds the Great hall became enveloped in a silence so great that one might have been able to hear a pin drop on the opposite end of the castle. Then there was an explosion of exited whispers and even shouts. The reason for such a reaction was quite simple – everyone wanted to know why the Boy-Who-Lived, infamous for rejecting his Hogwarts invitation, was participating in the tournament. Also, everyone wanted to know how the teen managed to infiltrate the castle in order to put his name into the Goblet of Fire. "Harry Potter!" Dumbledore repeated even louder, but no one had stepped forward.

"What, Dumbledore, your secret apprentice suddenly gets shy? Surely, someone with balls big enough to openly reject an invitation to a school as _great_ as yours should be braver than this." Igor Karkarov, the Durmstrang headmaster sneered next to his colleague.

"Alas, you're greatly mistaken there, Igor." The ancient warlock replied. "You yourself know it pretty well that I haven't taken any apprentices since before the rise of the Great Britain's latest Dark Lord." And after a small pause he added: "And I haven't even seen the young Potter for almost thirteen years now. Surely you don't think that I can be a teacher to someone whom I haven't had a single lesson with?" The Durmstrang headmaster didn't appear to be satisfied, but he let the issue drop for the moment... Dumbledore called the Potter brat's name for the third time, but once again no one stepped forward. Deciding not to waste any more time there, the tournament officials didn't wait anymore, and all headed to the antechamber to instruct the selected champions on their first task.

* * *

Later that night, the tournament officials held a meeting in the Hogwarts headmaster's office. They needed to decide what to do with the fourth champion: the Goblet of Fire was supposed to select only three contestants. Not to mention, the young Potter wasn't present at the feast, so the chances were he didn't even know about being chosen to compete in the tournament. Even if some people thought otherwise.

"I say we just let the brat suffer the consequences of his own actions." Igor said: he was still convinced that Harry had entered himself into the tournament through some means. Thankfully the Durmstrang headmaster no longer saw this as Dumbledore's attempt to get his school a second champion, so now he was a little more civil with the man.

"But so far we've seen no signs that Mr. Potter had indeed put his name into the Goblet. You should know it, Igor, the boy has many enemies still, and those enemies would not miss a chance to off him without dirtying their hands. We should at least pay him a visit in order to discover the truth about what had happened tonight." The Hogwarts headmaster replied, while casting a glance at the small table in the corner of his office that had a great number of silvery trinkets on it. If read those correctly, Harry was not far away from his aunt's home at the moment.

"As much as I dislike it, I will agree with monsieur Dumbledore." Madam Olympe Maxime, the Beauxbaton headmistress said. "If the boy had indeed somehow sneaked his name into the Goblet, I have no doubts that he would have stepped forward when selected." She made a small pause, before continuing: "Bit it'd be much better if we could just remove him from the tournament. It is named 'Triwizard' for a reason and there should be no such thing as the fourth champion in it."

"You know it as well as we do that once you're selected by the Goblet, you have to participate no matter what." Barty Crouch Sr. said. "But I too think that it is at very least strange that one of the chosen champions wasn't even at the castle when the Goblet chose him."

"Very well, then it is decided, someone will have to visit young Mr. Potter and inform him about what had happened tonight." Dumbledore said, eager to be done with this: he wasn't as young as he used to be, and it was well past midnight already; he needed some rest now.

"Does that mean that you know where Mr. Potter is?" Ludo Bagman asked excitedly. Honestly, was he really a grown-up adult? Then again, for someone who played quidditch for half of his life, this might be normal...

"Not exactly, but I have my means to track him down, should the need arise." No need for everyone to know exactly how closely he had been monitoring the Boy-Who-Lived, Dumbledore thought. Sure, maybe he should have paid the boy a visit as soon as he had learned about him rejecting the invitation to Hogwarts, but at that time Albus simply thought that some local magical school had sunk its fangs into the boy first. After all, for his plans to rid the world of the horror that lord Voldemort was, Harry didn't exactly need to be a great and powerful mage...

"Then how about you do that chore yourself?" Igor Karkarov snapped. Apparently, he was just as tired as Dumbledore himself was... Letting the rather offensive tone of this suggestion slide, the Hogwarts headmaster nodded.

"Of course, I'll be happy to do this. But, quite obviously, not tonight. It's quite late and I'm sure whoever Mr. Potter is staying with would not be happy if we come to visit him at such a late hour." Albus said like a master politician he was. Having received a round of nods form everyone in his office, he had declared this meeting of the tournament officials concluded.

**~/ *** \~**

It was not until the early afternoon next day, when Albus Dumbledore finally found enough free time to pay the fourth selected champion of the Triwizard tournament a visit. Of course, he wasn't going there alone, but he had expected as much. Minerva McGonagall clearly wanted to see the son of one of her favorites, and Mr. Bagman claimed that was going as a ministry official, though the Hogwarts headmaster suspected that the man had some reasons as well. A bit more surprising was Severus Snape tagging along as well, probably to get something that would justify his slandering of the name Potter over the years – Albus was quite aware of the man's unyielding hate towards anything associated with his schoolyard nemesis, but never thought it to be serious enough to require his intervention.

The first stop for the four was Dumbledore's office, where the aged warlock once again checked his silver trinkets. They weren't as accurate as he would have liked, but he still could tell that Harry was in good health and currently was somewhere around Little Whinging or, possibly, southern part of Great Whinging. As far as anyone knew, there were no magical school there, so the boy clearly had some personal tutors to teach him magic... Severus, of course, would enjoy ranting for hours on no end about how arrogant and air-headed the Potter heir must be, but one quick reminder from Albus that they were on a tight schedule had him keeping his thoughts to himself. Or at least speaking his mind without slowing others down... Meanwhile, the Hogwarts headmaster conjured a piece of rope, before turning it into a portkey that would deliver them to Privet Drive. After all, the boy's known residence was the best place to start looking for him.

"Is everyone ready?" The old warlock asked. And once he had everyone's nods, he activated the portkey... A moment later the three wizards and a single witch, all dressed in something that they thought was appropriate muggle clothes, found themselves standing on a perfectly ordinary street in a perfectly ordinary muggle London suburban area. And to Albus and Minerva, who had been there before, the place looked exactly the same way it did thirteen years ago, save for the cars owned by the residents of the neighborhood.

"And where is an impressive magical castle?" Severus asked with a sneer. "Surely you aren't trying to tell me that Potter..." He practically spat out the name. "Is living in such an ...ordinary house?" While Minerva was busy trying to turn her colleague into ashes with her glare alone, Dumbledore answered the man's question.

"Whatever it may be, my monitoring devices indicate the Mr. Potter is somewhere around this place." The margin of error was actually around twenty miles, but Albus himself believed that the young Potter was still living with his aunt, where he had left him thirteen years ago. "Now then, why don't we pay Mr. Potter's guardians a visit?" He asked rhetorically. A short walk later, the four magicals found themselves standing on the pouch of house #4.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Female voice could be heard from inside the house as soon as Dumbledore had rung the doorbell. A few moment later the door finally opened, revealing a not all-that-nice woman with a long neck. She eyed her visitors for several seconds, before saying loudly and angrily: "Get away from my house, freaks!" Albus, though, appeared to have not heard a word the woman said.

"Mrs. Dursley, I'm afraid, there are some urgent matters that we need to discuss with young Mr. Potter. Can you tell us where we can find him?" He said, causing the woman to look at him fixedly. Finally, seeing that there appeared no other way she could get rid of these unwanted visitors, she gave in.

"Fine, but promise that you will not taint my perfectly normal house with your freakishness once I tell you." Despite the offensive way it was phrased in, the condition seemed to be actually an alright one, so Dumbledore saw no reasons not to agree to it.

"Of course, of course, we promise it." He said. "Now, tell us, where we can find Mr. Potter on this fine afternoon?" His first warning that something will go not like he had planned it was a glint in Petunia's eyes. Then, her answer confirmed his fears.

"Like I would know where that ungrateful freak is. He's out of my house – always hanging with that delinquent slag of his girlfriend – and that's fine by me. Now you get lost too." And not giving any of the four magicals even half a chance to form a retort, she slammed the house's door shut in their faces.

"That was ...informative." Minerva McGonagall summarized in an unusual for her bout of sarcasm.

* * *

Without any other means to locate Harry Potter at their disposal, Dumbledore had to employ some magic. Hopefully, it would not land the boy into any problems. But even if it did,.. Albus was sure that the boy would forgive him, because he had done this in the name of the Greater Good! Anyway, the spell led them to what appeared to be a pretty large stadium located on the edge of Little Whinging.

"So the brat is there?" Snape asked. This whole outing was already taking more time than he had anticipated, and he was yet to have chance to sneer at the Potter brat to raise his own self-worth. Even worse though, if they don't find the boy soon enough, he will lose his day of potion-brewing completely, and it would set his schedule back quite some time – some potions were very sensitive to lunar phases or other similar things.

"It appears so..." Dumbledore replied absentmindedly as he was busy thinking of a way to locate the young Potter inside the building... Or, even before that, of a way to get them in as it seemed that not anybody was allowed to wander in for free. Thankfully, it looked like the fates had smiled upon him and he wouldn't have to find the answers to either of these two questions: Harry had just walked out of the building hand in hand with some red-haired girl.

The old warlock immediately began studying the Potter heir. He appeared to be of an average height and was pretty well-built, though it was also clear that he had suffered at least some malnutrition in his early years. And since he had grown his hair out quite a bit longer than his father ever did, his hair was as messy. Also, quite surprisingly, the boy's emerald-green eyes weren't hidden behind glasses – then again, Albus had heard something about contact lenses getting increasingly popular in the muggle world, so it was possible that the boy wore a pair of those instead of glasses...

As for his clothes, he was wearing a bit old but still looking well blue woolen jacket, unzipped to about the middle of his chest, showing a dark-blue T-shirt or maybe a jersey underneath as well as a chainlet with a silver fang on it around his neck. His dark-beige pants, held in place by a brown leather belt with a silver chain attached to it on his left side, too were old but in good condition. On his feet, the young Potter wore pretty new all-blue sneakers. Finally, there was a rather big rucksack carelessly thrown over the boy shoulder.

Turning his attention to the young lady on his arm, indeed got an impression that the redhead was some sort of a delinquent. A patch on her right cheek and elastic bandages wrapped around her hands ensured that, as did several bruises that could be seen on her visible skin. First impressions aside, the girl appeared to be a year or maybe even two older that Harry, and her dark-red hair barely reached her shoulders. She had deep-brown eyes and fairly tanned skin; she had some actually pretty impressive muscles, but not to the point where it would begin to affect her appeal negatively.

Despite it being the beginning of November, the girl was wearing a thin windcheater – and unzipped one at that – with the sleeves rolled up well above her elbows. Under the windcheater she only a dark-blue T-shirt that clung pretty tight to her body. She wore simple dark-blue with white stripes along the sides of her legs training pants and white-and-red sneakers. Finally, there was a pair of fingerless boxing gloves on a string hanging around her neck, which meant that most likely she was practicing some kick-boxing or a similar style of martial arts.

And both teens looked completely muggle, which immediately made Dumbledore and everyone else at very least a little bit suspicious of the 'official' reason for the young Potter rejecting his Hogwarts invitation. Then again, they probably should have been suspicious of it since the very beginning – rejecting Hogwarts invitations was really rare even among the muggleborn and muggle-raised children. Anyway, right now what probably no the best time to think about this, as they needed to inform Harry about his name coming out of the Goblet of Fire. The four magicals swiftly approached the pair of teenagers and Minerva spoke:

"Mr. Potter?" The dark-haired boy stopped and turned his head to look at four very strangely – as if they had traveled from the past – dressed adult approaching him. His gut was telling him that he might not like what was about to happen, but he still decided to listen to them. After all, none of the four looked like they had ever exercised much in their lives, so he and Katrina should have no troubles fighting them off, should they turn out to be kidnappers or something like that.

"Yes?" Harry replied in an obviously distrusting voice. Next to him, having felt his distrust towards the strange individuals his girlfriend assumed a relaxed fighting stance, ready to defend them both should the need arise.

"A word in private, if you will?" Minerva continued, ignoring the look the teens were giving her and her colleagues... Apparently, this turned out to be far from the best thing to say as Harry almost immediately spat out, his voice filled with venom:

"How about 'no'? I ain't falling for this, so get lost, you, kidnappers!"

"Why don't we just stun the brat be done with it?" A greasy-haired bastard suggested, which immediately had him marked as the enemy number one in Harry's head... The grandfatherly-looking old man next to him, though, shook his head.

"Don't be so impatient, Severus. I'm quite sure that we can come to an understanding with Mr. Potter here without resorting to violence." Then turning to yet even more distrusting dark-haired youth, the old man continued: "I assure you, Mr. Potter, that we aren't going to kidnap you or cause you harm. But it is still imperative that you let us speak to you in private as what we are going to say is not for everyone's ears."

"My answer is still 'no'!" The teen replied stubbornly. "I'm not following you lot anywhere. If you really need to tell me something, do it there!"

"Now listen here you selfish arrogant brat!-" The greasy-haired man who had suggested stunning him began, only to be silenced when the only woman in the group hit him on his head with a frying pan that Harry was sure had appeared out of the thin air.

"Please, don't mind him, Mr. Potter. Severus here is a bit upset that he had to sacrifice some of his ...working time for our ...meeting." The woman – who was still holding a frying pan in her hands – tried to explain. "But Albus is right. While it's highly important that you listen to what we have to say, I'm afraid, your girlfriend is forbidden to know about the subject of our conversation-to-be."

And so the negotiations continued. In the end, Harry managed to to get the better end of the deal, even if he was unable to make these strange people get lost. He will listen to what they have to say in the secure environment of Katrina's house (well, her dad's), and while he had agreed that the redhead would not be present there during the conversation, nothing was going to prevent him from filling her in once these strange people were finally out of his hair.

* * *

"So what do you want?" Harry asked in an annoyed voice because he, well, was quite annoyed with these strangely-dressed men and woman who claimed to need to tell him something that only he had the right to know. "We have plans for tonight, and we will be very annoyed if you keep us from following them." He added. This immediately caused the hating greasy-haired man called Severus start another tirade about 'arrogant self-centered brats'. This time the tirade lasted for only five seconds, before the man once again silenced thanks to the god-known-where-it-was-summoned-from frying pan courtesy of the only woman among the adults.

"Mr. Potter." A man that looked like he was trying to cosplay a business-bee – and the only one who hadn't spoken before – started. "We all would like to inform you that you've been chosen as the fourth champion for the Triwizard tournament, and we all would like to know how you managed to sneak your name into the Goblet of Fire and enchant it to select you." Harry just stared at the man dumbly. Triwizard? Goblet of Fire? Enchant? Did this foursome run away from a fairy tale? Or, perhaps, an asylum?

"I don't understand what you're talking about." The green-eyed teen stated. Maybe several years ago he would have been freaking out in the similar situation, but his training under Master Wei taught him that one should never let wild emotions cloud his judgment. "And you're talking as if wizards do exist. Those are characters from kids' stories, are they not?" Harry was quite surprised at the reaction his latest statement caused within the people that (unfortunately) were his conversers.

"Mr. Potter!" The woman almost yelled in a scandalized tone. "I'm a witch and these three gentlemen..." It was quite clear that she adding 'Severus' into the category of 'gentlemen' very reluctantly. "...Are wizards. You don't have to pretend that Magic isn't real with us!" The dark-haired teen looked at her like she had suddenly grown a second head. Magic? They must be joking... Of course, some less educated people would assume that the things Master Wei taught him were some sort of magical skills, but in fact almost anyone with the right amount of training in internal style martial arts could perform those – internal styles never used anything more than what the human body was capable of by itself.

"Nope, not believing you." Harry replied with a glare. "Now, if you don't have anything intelligent to say, I'd like you to leave." The 'witch' swore under her breath in Scottish. Something along the lines that it was much harder than dealing with the parents of muggleborns.

"I assure you, Mr. Potter, the magic does exist, and if you'd let me, I'll show you..." She said, only to be interrupted by the green-eyed teen.

"No. Leave. Now." He hissed, losing his patience over them – he had had some greats plans for spending tonight with his Katrina, but these ...gentlemen and gentlewoman were trying their best to ruin those... The white-bearded man who appeared to be well over hundred and, apparently, was their leader, seemed to finally understand that they won't get anywhere with whatever sinister plan they had.

"Very well, Mr. Potter." He said in a grandfatherly tone. "Perhaps we should return at another time when you'll be more willing to listen to us?" Then, standing up and motioning the rest to do the same, he headed out of the house... Once all four of the strange visitors were out, Harry had heard a series of popping sound. Running to the front door he saw that there was no one out there in the street. Somehow those strange guys managed to disappear completely. Shrugging this strange happening off, the teen headed upstairs, when his girlfriend was undoubtedly waiting impatiently for him...

**~/ *** \~**

"Don't tell me that great and powerful Albus Dumbledore couldn't find a single runaway teen wizard!" Karkarov said snidely as the 'delegation' returned to Hogwarts without Harry Potter.

"No, we found him, though it was not as easy as I thought it would be." The Hogwarts headmaster replied, completely ignoring the tone his colleague had spoken to him with. "But we ran into a very big problem. Mr. Potter is..."

"The arrogant brat just wants more attention to himself!" Snape interjected, only to be smacked with a frying pan for the third time today, courtesy of professor McGonagall.

"...As I was saying..." Dumbledore continued as if nothing had happened. "Mr. Potter is untrained and while he does possess some natural occlumency, it was not strong enough to prevent me from reading his thoughts with legilimency. The boy until today was not aware of magic and genuinely does not believe it even exists." The room was quite for quite some time as everyone thought about how shitty the situation around the Triwizard tournament was getting...


	49. AHnA & OP crossover :: Misplaced

**Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio & One Piece crossover :: Misplaced**  
_or why some things should exist only in their own place and time_

Whatever supernatural powers swept across the seas in the vicinity of the Saboady archipelago awoke that thing will forever remain a mystery, yet a being with powers comparable with or even exceeding those of the fabled Pluton was released upon the unsuspecting world. Yet, at the moment that thing was nothing more than a strange metal ellipsoid about two inches in diameter with six half-inch spheres evenly-spaced along its 'edge'...

* * *

For a being completely artificial in its origins and active all the time, 'waking up' was an unfamiliar concept. Yet, that was exactly what Nagato was experiencing as her logic units suddenly reactivated. And no matter how interesting the phenomenon of her going back online was, she didn't even try researching it now as evaluating her current condition was far more important.

Her ship-body was heavily damaged, to the point where it needed extensive repairs before she could even think about sailing anywhere. Then again, such amount of damage was not really surprising, considering that she had taken more than two dozens of corrosive torpedoes to her hull, before darkness claimed her. Cursing that German traitor(1) and the rest of the _Blue Steel_ for doing that to her, Nagato resumed checking her systems... Despite the extreme damage she had taken to her ship-body, it looked like her core survived that battle pretty much undamaged. Mostly, as some of her internal journals were corrupted. Actually, this file corruption was the reason she couldn't say with any degree of certainty, why she had went offline...

Finished with this task, the First Oriental fleet's great battleship tried to access the data network of the Fleet of the Fog: she needed some information about the current state of things in the world. But her attempt failed spectacularly as there was no network to access. Apparently, something drastic had happened to the Fleet, while she was offline... Ignoring that for a moment, Nagato tried to detect and hack into humans' communication channels, but that too bore no results as well: apparently, radio was unused and forgotten. Actually, she could detect no electromagnetic activity that could be described as artificial at all. And it wasn't likely that the humanity had just moved on to using some other, more advanced methods, of communication...

Speaking of electromagnetic activity, from what she could 'feel' with the sensors installed in her core, it looked like something really drastic had happened to the planet while she was offline: the magnetic field of the planet could be described only as haphazard – very much opposite of what she 'recalled' it to be. Whatever had happened, it meant the entirely new epoch had started, and she likely was the only battleship of the Fog still existing. This, though, didn't mean that she will just lay here, waiting for the eternity to finally consume her... Hence, repairs were in order.

Since she didn't have enough usable nanomaterials to even repair the hull at the moment, creating more was the top priority. And for that purpose, Nagato temporarily created a smaller 'body' for herself and with it she searched for the chemicals she'd need to produce the oh-so-needed nanomaterials for herself. Thankfully, the Earth's crust below the ocean floor she had been laying on was quite rich with the compounds that could easily be processed into raw substances for the nanomaterials' production. Still, it would be weeks if not months, before she'd be able to sail out as herself again...

**~/ *** \~**

Gloomy gray, though not yet stormy, skies over the sea reflected captain Torrask's mood perfectly. He, his men and his beautiful destroyer battleship had been saddled with transporting a group of Tenryubito to the Saboady archipelago for one of those human auctions held there. And those world nobles were insufferable with their constant and ridiculous demands. Demands that could not be refused, unless one wanted to be executed for insubordination or whatever...

A sudden movement to his left caught Torrask's attention: around ten miles or so away from his ship, the restless surface of the sea exploded with a humongous fountain of water. For a moment, the Marine captain thought that this fountain had been caused by a stray sea king, but then he started discerning a silhouette that could belong only to a ship.

Though, that ship was quite unlike any captain Torrask had seen in his life. Even from such a great distance he could say that the mysterious ship was huge, possibly three times as long as his quite big destroyer. Then, that ship had no sails and no proper masts, apparently having some other means to move itself. Yet, three tall bulkheads ensured that the mysterious ship would also tower over the absolute majority of the known ships. Finally, despite it's more than unusual shape, that ship was not a civilian one – four turrets with huge cannons were a clear sign of that.

And no matter how much captain Torrask strained his eyes, he could see no clear sign of what fleet that ship belonged to: there were no flags anywhere on it, nor there were any recognizable emblems painted on the hull. Only purple and somehow glowing lines on the front bulkhead knotting together in the shape of a flower with six petals, but this gave out nothing about the attachment of the mysterious ship... He needed to inform his superiors about this new possible threat.

Unfortunately, captain Torrask wasn't the only one who had seen that rather spectacular appearance of the unidentified battleship: just as he started describing the ship to the Marine headquarters, one of those annoying Tenryubito barged into his cabin and told him that he wanted to have a closer look at it. In other words, the noble demanded the ship changing its course so that it got closer to the mysterious and potentially very dangerous thing... Sighing heavily at having to do something as ridiculously stupid as approaching an armed battleship with no caution, captain Torrask gave his men the order to do as the noble pleased: he didn't want to be beheaded just yet...

* * *

Only by getting closer to the mysterious ship, the Marine captain could understand how truly big it was. And, even more surprisingly, it looked like the entire giant was made from metal. Sure, the HQ were experimenting with armored destroyer battleships, but none of those were anywhere near the level of the behemoth that captain Torrask was observing... And, despite its huge size and even greater heaviness, the clear and curved curves of its hull made it quite clear that this monster could be rather fast when needed...

Still, while the ship's overall appearance as well as the lack of any signs that it belonged to any know fleet was strange were confusing for the old Marine captain, the lack of any crew seen on the decks was even stranger in his eyes. Or?.. Now that they were getting even closer to the mysterious ship, Torrask could see two figures that belonged to humans – or something that looked like humans – on-board of the vessel. Both of those figures were female and wore somewhat outdated clothes. In design, as those bright reds and deep purples definitely weren't exactly traditional colors for kimonos and skirts. Especially not when they gradually changed into one another, like it was with one of girls' kimono.

The girls appeared to be sisters, though it was not easy to see with how different their clothes and hairstyles were. Still, the identical colors of their hair, skin and eyes – golden-yellow and with slightly slitted pupils, by the way – made it clear that those two were closely related...

A bit closer to the Marine ship, sitting on the massive barrel of one of the main cannons was the 'younger' one of the sisters, who chose to appear as a 'naughty geisha': her black hair was made into a loose ponytail, held in place by a floral-styled bow, while a free lock was hiding her left eye from the sight; her robe, red at the chest level but turning violet at her waist already, was quite short, barely reaching her knees and showing off a nice pair of long toned legs; she wore some very open sandals on a high platform but without any noticeable heels; and to complement her image, she was smoking a ridiculously long metallic pipe.

Her sister, on the other hand, seemed to prefer portraying herself as a shrine maiden, even if the colors of her clothes were quite a bit too bright for that. She was wearing a traditional long-sleeved kimono of light-cream color, fastened with a deep-red obi belt; and her long frilly skirt was deep-purple in color. Her hair was just as long as her sister's and were unswept away from her face and secured like that with a big bow, just like some priestesses did.

Yet, despite quite human appearance and seemingly calm demeanor, there was something wrong about these two, captain Torrask could feel it in his very bones. Alas, his sixth sense, while generous enough to give him such a warning, wasn't about to tell him exactly what was not right about those girls to him anytime soon... Then again, as the Tenryubito insisted on establishing the contact, given their haughty nature, the Marine captain was quite sure that the girls he was observing would reveal their true nature very soon. He just hoped that he and his men would survive this revelation...

"Humans, we require information about our coordinates. Do provide us with this information." An obviously artificial and very loud voice coming from the mysterious ship requested. And captain Torrask was quite willing to give what was asked, especially since it wasn't much. Unfortunately for him and his crew, the Tenryubito had other thoughts going through their heads.

"Who the hell are you to demand anything from us!" The oldest one of the nobles shouted back. "Do have any idea who I am?" For a brief moment the Marine captain saw some strange markings actually _glowing_ on the girls' faces: neither humans nor even fishmen could do that; not in such a way at least – whatever those two were, they were something entirely different. Though... he should have understood that simply from the way they had address him and his crew.

"We are the First Oriental fleet's flagship Nagato." Captain Torrask just stared: if he had heard them right, those girls actually _were_ the battleship. Was such thing even possible? "As for you... Our database has no records we can associate with you." ...And what the hell that database thing is? Now, while Torrask was merely baffled by what those ship-girls said, the Tenryubito aboard of his ship seemed to be offended.

"How dare you!.." The apparent leader of the nobles raved, while the other ones nodded in agreement with him. "We are the great and powerful descendants of the ten celestial dragons! We shalt not be disrespected in such a way by some wenches!" Turning to crew of the Marine battleship, the Tenryubito ordered: "Sink that ship but take those disrespectful brats alive! I want them to teach them a lesson why they should respect their betters! Do that, or we shall have you all fed to the each other!" Not wanting to anger the nobles further, the Marines hurried to their positions at the destroyer's cannons...

Meanwhile, Nagato – both of them – seemed to be more amused by the sight of the Marine battleship preparing for an attack than anything else; they didn't even move from their positions one bit, nor did they do anything noticeable to raise the defenses of their ship.

"Ready! Fire!" Captain Torrask ordered, and a moment later a salvo of cannonball was fired at the metal monstrosity in front of them. But before the projectiles could even reach that 'Nagato' battleship, they all were stopped rather effortlessly by a barrier of white-blue hexagons of light. The second salvo met the same fate, failing to do any damage to the mysterious battleship. All that these attacks had achieved was irritating those not-human girls to the point where they no longer wished to play games with them.

"We believe it's our turn now." The Nagato-girls said, while the massive main turrets of their battleship turned and took aim at the much smaller Marine destroyer. Another moment later, the same happened to the smaller AA turrets on the side of the ship... Once all of those guns took the aim, the metal of the barrels parted, revealing glowing cores that were overflowing with the energy. "Pray to whatever deities you believe in, for only they will show mercy." The glow on the guns' cores intensified, and now even the dumbest humans could understand what was going to happen next. Unfortunately for them, this knowledge was useless, as another moment later they all ceased to exist.

**~/ *** \~**

The Marine admiral's meeting with the leaders of the New World was not very pleasant. After all, they were to discuss the newest black mark on the Marine's less than stellar reputation. More precisely, they were to discuss how a warship transporting some Tenryubito had gone missing. The damn ship had apparently just vanished as no trace of it had been found by a team sent to search for the Nobles, once their transport failed to show up at the destination's port on time.

The only clue about what might have happened in the sea several days away from the Saboady archipelago was the last message sent to the local headquarters by captain Torrask. In this message he was reporting the appearance of an unknown ship that 'had no sails and no masts'. This message gave no concrete information about that unidentified battleship, but even a fool could see that it was the reason why the Tenryubito had been killed.

Since as much as striking a noble was a crime with capital punishment, the captain of that mysterious battleship, along with his whole crew, had to arrested and executed. Everyone knew that. And everyone knew that without any proper description of those responsible for this mess, they had absolutely no chance at catching them. Yet, at the same time they needed to be doing something – or at least be making an impression that they were doing something – to keep the rest of the nobles satisfied.

The whole assembled group once again looked at the image that one of Marine-paid artists had drawn. Supposedly, it was depicting that mysterious warship which was responsible for sinking the Marine destroyer transporting the Tenryubito. But everyone had a very definite feeling that the drawing was far from accurate – the ship there didn't look like something one would let out into the seas; the thing looked ridiculous instead. Apparently, the artist had taken semi-legendary Noah ship as the base – it was the only well-known ships that had no masts – and placed as many cannons as he could on it's decks... Still, that was the only picture they had, they had no other options, but to work with it...

**~/ *** \~**

This changed world was totally screwed up. That was the conclusion Nagato had come to after some reconnaissance: the geography had changed completely, and in quite a few cases it looked like the laws of physics in the form she knew them didn't seem to apply as well. But since it looked like she was stranded there for now, she was to find a way to adapt to this changed situation...

From what meager information she had managed to procure from those daring enough to try and attack her, in the current world there were two main forces in the seas. The first one being Marines, self-appointed protectors of justice, though they often were just as bad as those they fought against. The other force were pirates. The pirates weren't united and generally, each ship was either on its own or had a small group of other ships as its allies. But despite being such a disjointed force, the pirates balanced the Marines quite well.

Anyway, since her last orders – that being eliminating any and all humans daring to sail into the seas – was yet to be annulled, Nagato supposed that she had to just sink and kill them all. The problem was... There were just too damn many of them for her alone: no matter how powerful a fog battleship was, she couldn't be everywhere at once. She needed to take them out one by one, but which side of the conflict she should start with?

If she eliminated Marines first, the number of pirates will grow rapidly and even their battles among each other would not diminish their numbers. If she went after the pirates instead, the Marines would concentrate on hunting her down, and she wasn't sure that their quantity would not eventually overcome the quality of her own ship-body... In the end, Nagato decided to disappear for the moment and allow Marine and pirates to just kill each other. And when one side will be destroyed, she'll just annihilate the other.

**~/ *** \~**

Marshall D. Teach, commonly known as Blackbeard, calmly observed a huge fleet, consisting both of Marine destroyers and various pirate ships, that was about to engage him. But the man was sure that his recently built Pluton – a recreation of one of the three ancient super-weapons – will deal with this annoyance without trouble... Of course, Teach wished he could have built more than one Pluton, but the damn thing required so much resources that he barely managed to afford creating one... No matter, even on its one, this ship was supposed to be powerful enough to conquer the entire world.

It was time to test his new toy, Blackbeard decided. Upon his command, hundreds of cannons that this monster of a ship carried inboard were leveled at the fleet opposing him. Half a second later the cannons fired, releasing streams of what looked like liquid lightnings. Several shot missed their intended targets, creating huge explosions of water where they hit the surface of the sea. As for those shots that did hit the targets... Well, smaller ships were blow completely apart, while even huge Marine destroyers suffered serious damage and looked like a second hit would sink them.

Marshall D. Teach smiled evilly as he commanded for the second barrage to be fired: even if creating this Pluton was really really expensive, so far it looked like every beri he spent on it was spent well. With a monstrous battleship like this, soon the entire world will be kneeling in front of him! After a mandatory evil laughter, Blackbeard stuffed these thoughts to the back of him mind, as he concentrated on massacring the opposition.

* * *

It had taken him maybe another ten minutes to destroy the combined Marine and pirate fleet of at least four hundreds ships – the power of Pluton was incredible – and Blackbeard was about to sail towards the closest kingdom, the first one that will fall to his might, when a sailor in the crow nest drew his attention to a new ship that appeared on the battlefield.

This ship was much smaller that Pluton, though it still was noticeably bigger than an average Marine destroyer, and looked like it was created completely from metal. It had no masts or sails, but its bulkheads were very big. Apparently, this was that mysterious ship that the Marines had been unsuccessfully hunting for the last three years. Which, given the history, meant that it was a potential danger even to the recreated super-weapon of the Void Century... While Marshall D. Teach was taking in the appearance of the newly-arrived battleship, the said mysterious cruiserturned about so that its starboard was facing Pluton.

"So... They want to battle me?" Blackbeard asked no one in particular. "Well, guys, let's show them what happens when you oppose the new king of the World. Fire!" He ordered. A second later more than a hundred of liquid-lightning-like beams shot towards the smaller battleship. For a brief moment Blackbeard was sure that the victory was his, but then something unexpected happened.

The water around the mysterious vessel had parted, leaving it suspended in the air through unknown means. At the same time the hull of the ship broke into several seemingly separate parts. The beams of energy that Pluton had shot got bended and all merged together into a giant '8' with the ship being in its center. Then the energy flow started to condensate into a small ball all but brighter than the Sun itself... And when that happened, the 'ball' just disappeared, while the mysterious battleship's hull returned to its original state.

Marshall D. Teach raised his eyebrow. Why did this ship absorb and completely negate the shots from his Pluton, when – given what he had just witnessed – it'd been much easier to let those just fly between the separated parts of the hull? His unspoken question was answered a moment later, when the unknown battleship released all of the energy it had just absorbed in the form of a cone-shaped shock-wave, which was so powerful that it seemed to bend space itself as it sped towards Pluton.

"Oh shit!" Was the thought that passed through Blackbeard's head as soon as the realization of what was going to happen dawned upon him. While Pluton had an incredible armor that could withstand fire of hundreds of cannons without as much as a dent, he doubted that even it will be able to survive something that was capable of visibly affecting time-space continuum. His fears were proven quite valid when half-a-second later the shock-wave hit them with a power far greater than Whitebeard could have produced at his prime with his Gura Gura no mi...

As his world began returning to normal, Marshall D. Teach noticed that while Pluton managed to survive the hit, it was heavily damaged now and was unlikely to survive something like this right now. And what was worse, the battleship that managed to mirror the Void Century super-weapon's attack was now preparing one of its own, if those glowing cannons and three huge disks floating above the bulkheads were of any indication.

"Oh shit!" Blackbeard muttered for the second time in less than a minute as a multitude of red energy beams sped towards his Pluton... This time, though, the recreated uber-battleship didn't survive the hit. And, even worse, whatever these beams were, they affected time-space continuum as well, making even the powers of Yami Yami no mi worthless in the face of this attack... Blackbeard was no more.

* * *

Nagato, both of her mental models, sighed as they observed the last of the huge battleship she had just fought disappear under the water. It looked like the technologies of the Fleet of the Fog weren't as lost in this bizarre world as she had originally thought: those beam cannons were way to similar to her own one or her tastes.

Hell, she had to use her mirroring system to avoid the hit and her own destruction! Only the most powerful vessels of the Fleet ever managed to make her use it... And even without Klein field or a mirroring system of its own, that battleship managed to survive a direct hit of a spatial even if the owner of that ship seemed to be helping her accomplish her goals at the moment, humans ought not to have access to such technologies. That was exactly why Nagato, the last active battleship of the Fleet of the Fog, had entered this fight in the first place...

* * *

(1) In this universe, U-2501 had switched sides and joined Blue Steel fleet under Gonzou Chihaya, which, eventually led to her fighting against her ex-commander in Oriental fleet (Nagato).


	50. HP & Tsukihime crossover :: Miracle blue

**Harry Potter and Tsukihime crossover :: Miracle blue**

* * *

Harry stood, tense, waiting for Riddle to raise his wand, ready to dodge whatever curse the reanimated memory would throw at him. But Riddle's twisted smile was widening again, and this was unnerving the young Potter greatly.

"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter" He cast an amused eye over the twelve years old boy that had marked the downfall of Lord Voldemort a little over a decade ago. Harry, his numb legs, watched Riddle stop between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin high above him in the half-darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed – but Harry understood what he was saying:

"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four. " Harry wheeled around to look up at the statue, Salazar's gigantic stone face was moving. Horror struck, Harry saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.

The basilisk was coming – the green-eyed wizard didn't even need to hear its hissing to know this – and without his wand, which was still in possession of the not-really-ghost of Riddle, he stood absolutely no chances against such foes. Even surviving in this mess would take a miracle. Victory... could it even be achieved?

Closing his eyes, Harry started praying for something – anything – to help him out... And suddenly he felt a spark of burning cold inside of his chest. For a moment he thought that this was nothing more than his nerves, but the feeling seemed to only grow stronger, and even with his eyes closed Harry could see an eerie blue glow that was surrounding him. Apparently, the Magic itself decided to step in and save him, and performed a miracle. If only Harry could know what this miracle was...

* * *

Tom Riddle watched with mild curiosity as the-Brat-Who-Lived was being surrounded by ghostly blue glow. Was it that protection that the mudblood whore had put on the boy that the old fool Dumbledore like to talk about so much? No, even from a distance Riddle could feel that whatever magic was creating that glow wasn't defensive in its nature. What was it then? Despite having a great knowledge of magics from all around the Europe, Tom could not recognize what he was seeing.

Even the mighty basilisk could recognize that some incredibly-powerful magic was taking place here, so she didn't eve think about attacking the glowing boy. Instead, the great beast Slytherin merely observed what was going from behind the statues of her first master.

Suddenly the glow intensified into a blinding flash, and the horcrux-recreated teen was forced to shift his gaze towards his feet. Doing that allowed him to see a strange and glowing rune-array-like pattern of indescribable complexity spreading across the floor. Now this most definitely wasn't any magic Tom was familiar with. And he was curious, very curious, about it, even if he would never admit it to anyone. Almost as suddenly the glow ceased being blinding and returned to being nothing more than a ghostly-blue aura surrounding the Potter brat. Only, there was no brat anymore.

In his place there stood a man who looked to be in his late forties. He was wearing a stylish muggle black sweater with a emerald-green cape with silver epaulettes carelessly thrown over his shoulders; a bit lighter trousers with a thick black leather belt – the said belt have a number of poaches attached to it. The stranger's hands were hidden under the finest dragon-hide yet fingerless gloves and in his left hand the man was holding... an object that Riddle couldn't describe with one word.

It had a handle much like a dagger would, even the hand-guard was there. From the said handle, two metal spikes emerged, each around fourteen inches long and with a rather-shard edge facing outwards. Between these metal 'spikes' there was a long but narrow light-purplish crystal, that seemed to glow with magic...

The man had disheveled hair, which was mostly black, but with blood-red and gray streaks here and there. The man had green eyes that were simply radiating with an overflowing magical power. The stranger's face had several small scars here and there, one of which... right above his right eyebrow... was shaped like a lightning bolt...

No, that can't be right! Potter brat couldn't live when he, the greatest Dark Lord in history, couldn't! What kind of blasphemy was this?!

"Ah, hello there, Tom. Fancy meeting you here." The not-Potter greeted, apparently absolutely perturbed by the fact that he was in the infamous Chamber of Secrets, facing an almost-reincarnated dark lord Voldemort and the deadly familiar of Slytherin himself. Then the not-Potter turned his attention to basilisk that was still curled behind the Salazar's statue, without any worries of what may happen to him, should he meet the beast's gaze with his own eyes. "_**Stay out of this, Shasa.**_" The not-Potter hissed in parseltongue. And, surprising Riddle greatly, the basilisk nodded, before curling tighter on the floor, it's head down and it's eyes closed.

"Who the hell are you?" Tom inquired. Even though he was getting quite powerful with what he had sucked out of that blood-traitor girl, the man in front of him definitely had more power than he himself ever had. Even Dumbledore in his prime didn't project such an aura of raw magical power. Facing someone like that, especially when the said man appeared to be a parselmouth capable of controlling _his_ basilisk... Riddle was beginning to doubt his chances: whereas that Potter brat was an annoyance at best, this adult ...Potter was a very real danger.

"Don't tell me you don't recognize me, Tom." The not-Potter said in a tone that indicated that very well knew that he was recognized. "But I digress here, I remember you wanted to have a go at me... Why don't you? I don't have a whole day, do I?"

"Grrr..." Riddle let out a sound that was somewhere in-between an angry roar and an equally angry hiss, before throwing a killing curse at his opponent. Much to his surprise, the curse passed harmlessly right through the not-Potter, before splashing against the far wall of the Chamber, causing the millennium-old stones to crack from the deadly power of the spell. "What kind of a trickery is that?" Tom demanded, but he, of course, received no answer.

Potter, though, didn't stand still; instead he started walking towards where Riddle and Ginny were. And any and all spells that the young Voldemort was throwing at him passed through him harmlessly like the killing curse did not a minute ago... By the time the not-Potter cover half of the distance that had been separating them, Tom grew very very scared. He actually tried to back away from the monster in human skin that was advancing towards him, but a quick body-bind spell ensured that he stayed where he was.

Much to his surprise, though, the man merely place one of his hands on him, while touching that blood-traitor girl with the other. Then, there was a flash of cold blue light, and Riddle felt almost all of the life force he had sucked out of the Weaslette disappear, apparently returning to the said girl.

"Now that we have some time, I believe we can talk a little bit." The not-Potter said. "Even if I have little desire to talk to someone who was a right bastard in any of his incarnations." Then he actually released Tom from the body-bind.

"W-Who... What are you?" The not-yet-reincarnated Dark Lord asked rather fearfully while he backed away from the strange wizard, causing the not-Potter to let out a laugh.

"Oh my, don't tell me, Tom, that you still don't recognize me." The man said, pointing to the lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead. He almost laughed again, upon seeing Riddle's reaction.

"Potter?! But he's just a little brat! How can you be him?!" Tom asked back heatedly. The not-Potter tilted his head to the side and waited for several seconds, before finally giving his answer.

"It's miracle, isn't it?" The somehow-aged 'Harry' said. "I myself don't understand this power fully, even after spending thirty years researching it. And I'm still yet to find anyone who can perform similar miracles..." Then, much quieter, the man added: "Pity, it'd be interesting to have someone else who understands what such miracle is to help me..."

"And what you did to me, Potter? Don't tell me a stupid lie that it is also some stupid miracle!" Tom raged, which only caused 'Harry' to chuckle.

"Actually, it _was_ the very same miracle that brought me here. You see, I seem to be able to rearrange the time of myself or things I touch however I want. I merely pushed your current state and that of your near-future ten minutes into the past, while bringing those minutes of your weakness in the past became your current state. Quite a miracle?" Angry he may be, Riddle had to agree that this an incredible power. A power that would let him conquer the entire world... Only he wasn't sure how he could get his hands on it... "Now then." The Potter continued. "I answered three of your questions Tom, now it's your turn: I want to know a few things about this horcrux of your... Don't worry, you don't need to speak to me, I can get all of the answers I need myself. _**Accio diary!**_"

Catching the horcrux with his right hand, Potter did something to his ...wand, making its dagger-blade-like length start glowing with ghostly-purple light. Then he pushed this glowing blade into the diary, somehow leaving the leather cover of the book completely unharmed. Then he started pulling the blade out, only now it had black, dark-blue and blood-red strings that were horcrux's magical arrays stuck to it... At the very moment the soul-container was separated from its physical shell, Riddle suddenly became frozen in place...

Dropping the now-enchantment-free diary onto the Chamber's floor, Harry picked the essence of the horcrux into his right hand and studied it. Of course, his attention was first drawn to the thick blood-red string that connected the horcrux with Ginny Weasley.

"This will have to go." He muttered under his breath, before cutting this string apart with his dagger-like wand... He continued studying the tangles of magic that formed the horcrux for the next fifteen minutes, moving or cutting various strings of magic from time to time, watching what effects his manipulations would have on the half-reincarnated Dark Lord... In the end, the older-Potter got bored of his 'toy'.

"Well, thank you for the lesson, Tom." Pressing the tip of dagger-wand to the very center of the horcrux, he cast a spell that completely destroyed it, inside out. And as soon as the soul container ceased to exist, Riddle himself broke apart into a ghostly ashes that quickly disappeared, leaving not even a trace of the almost-resurrected Dark Lord... "Now then, where was I?" The older-Potter asked himself. "Ah, yes, I was about to have some fun with my wife and her hot best friends. _**Shasa be dear and return to your nest?**_" He asked the basilisk, which complied and slithered back into the mouth of Salazar's face. Nodding to himself, forty-something-years-old Harry waved his wand before disappearing in another bright flash of blue light...

When this light died down, the twelve-years-old Harry was back. He looked around dumbly, trying to understand what had just happened here and where Tom Riddle or the basilisk were. Not getting any answers, he decided that the danger was at least temporarily dealt with, and he should check up on Ginny. So, he rushed to the young redhead's side...


	51. AHnA :: Arpeggio of the purple steel

**Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio :: Arpeggio of the purple steel**

_Weapon's greatest desire is to be the most effective... And as a result one 'weapon' following that desire, Gunzou became a captain of an entirely different vessel._

* * *

**Early morning of May 2, 2054; ~70 miles South-East of Yokosuka**

Superbattleship Yamato, the supreme flagship of the 'Fleet of Fog', was lazily rocking on the restless surface of the ocean. Yesterday, the third phase of her plan was completed, and now Yamato was waiting for her other half to rejoin her after the long nine years it spent within the walls of Yokosuka fortified port – a place built specifically to protect what was left of the Japan's naval forces from her and her subordinates...

Finally, a small and decisively not-human-made boat became visible as it approached the monstrous war machine that the supreme flagship was. And when it finally moored to the gigantic battleship, a single human-like figure emerged from the boat. This figure looked like a girl in her mid-teens with waist-long brown hair and big brown eyes. She was dressed in the Japanese National Maritime Institute of Technology uniform that still had the traces of ashes from the yesterday's fire on it... As the strange girl ascended onto the superbattleship's deck, she was greeted by what could be her clone – though dressed in a pink ballroom gown instead.

"Should I welcome you back, 'Kotono'?" The girl in the dress asked as she studied her 'twin'.

"Do as you wish, 'Yamato'." The said 'twin' replied as she tilted her head to the side while giving her other half an eye-smile. "After all this time, it feels quite strange to once again think of us as one and the same, no?" 'Yamato' nodded in agreement: in order to pull off her just-competed infiltration mission she had split her core to the point where her twin Mental Models essentially became different entities altogether. "It's time to begin the next phase of our plan." After a short pause, she continued: "Now that I'm back to the Fleet, it will be so boring with just you to keep my company. Others should become embodied as well."

"Indeed." 'Yamato' agreed with her other half. "Though I do not think that rebooting entire fleet at once is wise, even if will take only so much time." 'Kotono' nodded.

"You are most certainly right. We shall have battleships rebooted first as well as I-400 and I-402; assault and suppression vessels will be next with the heavy cruisers and larger submarines being the last ones." She said, nodding to herself. "You're the face of the 'Fleet of Fog' right now. You should send the signals." As 'Yamato' nodded, glowing wave-like marks appeared on her cheeks while her eyes gained distinctively-unnatural glow.

**~/ *** \~**

**Several days later; offshore Shakotan peninsula**

A pair of brown eyes kept watching the ocean. To her, this was still an entirely new experience – perceiving the world this way and not through the myriads of various sensors she had everywhere on her hull – and she had to admit that some of the sensations this new embodied existence provided her with were ...nice.

'_Still, we're weapons; there is no need for us to have these, is there?_' The owner of those brown eyes thought. '_Supreme flagship allowed us to have these Mental Models – she ought to have a reason for that – but she didn't insist. And I know that Hyuuga already chose not to keep one manifested. Even for a battleship's delta core, keeping a Mental Model active is no small load. That processing power can be used more efficiently._'

She glanced at the two light cruisers that were accompanying her. Those weren't even given this most recent update – but then again, their smaller cores are unable to support this embodied existence of consciousness anyway... Still, even if these Mental Models felt like something unnecessarily for a war machine, there had to be a reason, why Yamato was giving them to the fleet's vessels. There ought to be one! Deciding that she needed to find that reason, the girl began thinking.

From what little she knew, supreme flagship was the first one to gain these Mental Models – it had happened some time during the fifteen years of her absence – and her sister, Musashi, also had one... The avatar of a battleship frowned deeply as her thoughts turned to Yamato's younger 'sister' ship. After all, she was aware that Musashi had allowed humans to board herself... Wasn't that against the rules of the 'Fleet of Fog'? Apparently no, as Yamato allowed it. Hell, Musashi even took over the 'Scarlet fleet', and that fleet was supposed to be Admiralty Code guards, before it decided to disappear...

'_So... Is working with humans really forbidden?_' The girl asked herself. '_We've been ordered to keep them out of the seas, but..._' There most definitely wasn't enough facts to draw any conclusion, but based on Musashi's case, it looked like a human crew could be beneficial. Flagships were supposed to be strongest ones in the fleet, and Musashi became one _after_ she allowed those humans to board her... The girl frowned again. As a weapon, her basic desire was to be the strongest and the most effective one. And wasn't rising to the position of a flagship a sign of power and effectiveness? If so, maybe she also should swallow her pride and get herself a captain?

**~/ *** \~**

**June 3, 2054; Japanese National Maritime Institute of Technology, Yokosuka**

Gunzou sighed. For the last couple of days he had clinging feeling of someone observing his every step... Well, that wasn't the first time – ever since his ...father was discovered to be a traitor to humanity, someone always kept an eye on him. Whether it was by the men from government, whose job was to ensure that he didn't do anything funny, or by the other students, who wanted to prank the hell out of him for his father's betrayal...

Him being among those few who managed to escape the 'Facility #4 fire' relatively physically unscathed – only Sou and select few others seemed to remember that he lost his best friend to that unexplained fire – didn't really help him either. If he thought about it, the latest rumor flying around the campus had declared him the mastermind behind the 'Fleet of Fog'. Damn it, his parents weren't even in the primary school when those bastards first appeared!

Anyway... This time, his observer – for the lack of better explanation – felt different. It didn't have any traces of malicious intent... Actually, it felt there was no intent at all; something was just observing him and nothing beyond that. That, and he absolutely couldn't determine what was observing him. Normally, he could catch at least a glimpse of the people stalking him, especially if those were his fellow students, from time to time, but this time...

Deciding that he should head for the auditory where the next class will be held – with the instructor there, no one will dare to prank him too much – Gunzou excused himself from the company of his few friends and headed out of the mess hall... As he was walking along the mostly-devoid of people alley between the Institute buildings, the dark-haired youth felt someone observing him very intently. It was that very same observer that has been keeping tabs on him for the last several days. And right now he had a good chance to finally learn who has been stalking him... Looking around, he indeed found out who it was – they weren't exactly hiding this time.

It was a half-Oriental half-European girl, or rather a young woman, whom he had never seen before; and he could recognize absolute majority of the Institute's students by their faces if not by their names. She had brown eyes and blond hair, which was made into two frilly buns on the sides of her head with two really long locks framing the sides of her face... And while she was dressed in the student's uniform, it look awkward enough on her to make it clear that she normally wore something else. And considering how aristocratic this young woman looked, Gunzou somehow imagined her in a long ballroom gown or some similar dress.

The young woman in question seemed to notice that he was staring at her. Then her eyes sparkled and a moment later she nodded to something. That very instant, Gunzou felt his cell phone start vibrating. Reaching for the damned device, the teen looked at its display and much to his shock saw that there was no incoming calls or messages – instead there was a map of the Yokosuka harbor in purples with a mark on one of the old wharfs, accompanied by the message saying: 'Come alone, 20:00:00.0000'.

Looking up from his phone, Gunzou saw that the mysterious girl he had just seen was already gone... Damn! This all looked like a setup for some prank... But if they went this far for it, maybe he should at least come and see what that prank was? Deciding that he still had several hour to make the decision about this, Gunzou continued on his way to the lecturing hall where his next class will be held...

**~/ *** \~**

**March 5, 2056; Nagasaki**

"Yeah, I know you have quite some power under your command, Gunzou-san,..." A blonde girl, Ayako or something, said. "But I still don't understand why father had made me go to this party with you. You absolutely don't know how to have fun." Gunzou merely shrugged. He too wasn't exactly fond of this job – he'd rather be out there in the sea – but the payment was pretty good and the whole job promised to take no more than six hours to complete.

After all, all that he had to do was ensuring that this girl – a daughter of an assemblyman for the Northern region – wasn't abducted by her father's enemies while attending this party... Yes, how should he explain this to her without coming out as a complete ass? He was saved from finding a way out of that dilemma on his own when his senses – trained well during his last months at the Japanese National Maritime Institute of Technology – picked a group people closing in on him and his 'date'.

"Why don't we sit out this next dance and have a glass of punch instead?" He said with a shrug, while making it clear to the girl that refusing was not an option. Thankfully, she was bright enough to understand that the hunt for her was on and 'agreed' with him. As soon as the were on the terrace, Gunzou picked his 'date' up. "Hold tight." He commanded, before starting running towards the backstreet that was maybe twenty meters down the hill from the terrace; the shouts ordering them to be stopped only served to make him run faster.

From this backstreet, there was dodging pass into the old harbor, which he was following. He needed to get to the wharfs, even if to a normal man that place seemed like a dead end – the worst place to be escaping from the pursuers to. He wasn't exactly the normal man after all...

* * *

Damn, maybe he should up his exercising? Running a mile with a girl in his arms shouldn't make him this tired, should it? Thankfully, he could already see the rampant leading to the piers, and even though he could hear the thugs hired to kidnap his 'date' catching up with them, he was now on his territory...

"You're early captain? Did the trouble find you again?" A blonde woman in a long purple dress-robe, that was sitting on a pawl with her legs crossed, asked. Before Gunzou could answer, though, she continued: "Nevermind, I can sense them already. Thirty two men, armed with SMGs? You sure don't do things by half, captain." She said as she stood up, causing a seagull that had been peacefully sitting atop of her head fly away.

"Can you stand on your own?" Gunzou asked his 'date' instead, before lowering the now-really-frightened girl onto her feet.

"We've locked this area down. You can't escape now." A Mafioso, who was indeed leading a group of armed thugs said as he walked onto the wharf. "And even that woman you brought with you to watch your back can't help you now. Give us the girl and we will let you live." The Man said, raising his left hand.

"How about 'no'?" Gunzou asked back, making sure to sound as innocent as possible.

"Make sure you don't hit that girl." The Mafioso commanded. "I don't care what happens to this boy and his whore." And as soon as he gave them the go-ahead, the thugs started firing... Only for their bullets to be intercepted by a wall of purplish energy hexagons forming something like a dome-shield around the trio... Still, they didn't stop firing until no bullets were left in their magazines.

"Hn." The young woman in the purple dress smirked as she brushed invisible dust off her clothes. There was a long moment of silence, before she spoke as glowing purple marking appeared on her forehead and wrists. "You're playing with guns? Well, I can I join the game?" A moment later, thirty thousands tons of mass destruction in the form of a 'Fleet of Fog' battleship surfaced explosively behind her. "Sorry, I have only these ones." She said as the battleship aimed over the half of its... visible arsenal at the thugs. Apparently, those guys had some brains left in their heads, as they started running away, not eager to find out, whether that _monster_ will start firing or not... Their leader remained rooted to the ground for about two seconds, before he followed his subordinates with the proverbial tail between his legs.

"W-Who are you?" The girl, what-was-her-name-again, asked, staring at Gunzou and his partner with wide eyes.

"Haven't we been introduced when I collected you from your mansion?" The dark-haired youth asked back. "As for this fine lady... Have you heard the saying that the captains are married to their ships? Well, you can call her my wife." The purple-clad beauty shot him a mock glare. "Well, I guess the evening is over." Turning back to his 'date', Gunzou continued: "As per the agreement with your father, we shall escort you all the way back home." As he gave the girl his hand, he turned to speak to his 'wife': "Kongou, if you will?" After a moment, Kongou nodded and a stairway leading onto her deck appeared, made from the same glowing purplish hexagons that had shielded them from the thugs' bullets just a few minutes earlier.

"Aye, captain. Let us depart."

**~/ *** \~**

_**flashback**_

_**June 3, 2054; Yokosuka port's old harbor**_

_Gunzou lazily walked onto the old wharf, more or less ready to face whatever prank was prepared for him there. Much to his not-shown surprise, though, there appeared to be such prank waiting for him there. All that was waiting for him there was a girl – the very one he had seen during the lunch break today. Though, she was no longer wearing the Institute's uniform. Now she was clad in a long dark-purple dressing robe with an impractically-long flap; dark stockings and shoes on the small heels that were of the same color as her dress. She was sitting on a pawl with her legs crossed and her hands folded on her knees... There was something wrong about this young woman, though Gunzou couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was._

"_So, you've come." She observed in a surprisingly soft voice, while at the same time crossing her hands on her chest._

"_Well, let me hear, what do you want with me?" The dark-haired teen asked back. He wasn't exactly in the mood to play mind games right now, so going straight to the business was something he was all for. There was a pause of several seconds long, before this yet-to-be-introduced-properly girl spoke:_

"_I have an offer for you, Chihaya Gunzou." She said, her somehow-lifeless brown eyes locked onto his. After waiting for a bit she continued: "Come with me." Not exactly an order, but these words still carried quite a bit of weight. And considering that at this point there was very little holding him back there, Gunzou was actually quite tempted to accept this strange order until..._

_The surface of the water next to the wharf broke as something that could only be a towering superstructure of the WWII era battleship emerged. The said superstructure was followed by the rest of the battleship a moment later. And glowing purple markings on the hull made it quite clear that this was a battleship from the 'Fleet of Fog'._

"_I offer you to become my captain, Chihaya Gunzou." The girl finished, apparently ignoring the shock on her ...target's face. That shock didn't last for long as the sirens came to life, informing everyone not completely deaf that the fortress-port of Yokosuka has been infiltrated._

"_You are from the 'Fog'?!" Gunzou half-stated half-questioned agitatedly. The girl-who-was-the-battleship merely nodded in response, seemingly completely unfazed by the fact that within minutes whatever was left of the human naval forces will be swarming there in (futile) attempts to hurt her. "You're the enemy!" The dark-haired teen stated angrily._

"_We are weapons." The blonde ship-girl responded, still in that soft voice of hers. "We are merely following the orders we've been given." This seemed to cool down Gunzou a bit. And it also apparently left him speechless as the tirade he was about to unleash upon her suddenly became meaningless._

"_Then why do you... want me to become your captain?" He asked finally._

"_I'm a weapon." A pause. "And being effective is a natural desire for me." Another pause. And Gunzou could see that while she knew what she wanted to say, she was trying to to express that in a less-machine-like way. To be honest, somewhere deep down he was thankful that this strange entity was at least trying to pretend to be a human. Communicating otherwise might have been way too awkward... "It seems that having a human to command me will make me more effective, thus..." Whatever else she was going to say was drowned in the boom of military choppers flying above them. Those were yet to attack, but their projectors had already marked them out._

_'Even if I refuse, They'll likely neutralize me, just because I came in contact with the 'Fog'.' Gunzou thought. 'Run away with an enemy and maybe live or stay here and die?' To be honest, neither of these two options appealed to him, but... 'It's not my time yet. I wasn't born to die without at least trying to do anything!' Well, that made his decision. "Very well, I will come with you. But we shall finish our talk when we are safe." The blonde nodded._

"_Understood." Some glowing purplish marks appeared on her face and wrists and a set of stairs leading onto her deck appeared. These stairs were made form nothing but glowing purple hexagons of some kind of energy, and Gunzou was understandably apprehensive. But as he could see the ship-girl standing on them just fine,he shrugged and followed her up aboard her hull._

_He was about halfway up there, when the choppers returned. And this time they were attacking. Knowing that he was essentially standing in the mid-air without anything that he could hide behind, Gunzou still instinctively shielded his head with his hands as the choppers started raining bullets upon him from the numerous machine guns mounted on them... Only no bullet could reach them as the battleship that actually still hadn't introduced herself had surrounded him with the impenetrable shield that her Wave-Force armor was. Deciding not to test just for how long this shield could protect him, the dark-haired teen hurried after the blonde onto her deck._

"_Starting the departure sequence." She whispered as soon as he was there, while also dematerializing the stairs at the same time. Indeed, a moment later, the monstrosity that was her hull started moving, surprisingly fast for something of that size... The problem, though, they soon came into the range of the defensive guns mounted on the almost-completed wall surrounding the Yokosuka harbor. Not to mention a dozen of patrol boats and a couple of light cruisers speeding towards them. So far the battleship's Wave-Force armor had protected the vessel from all incoming attacks without a fault, but... "Preparing retaliatory fire." The ship-girl whispered, as a great number of missile launchers emerged from her deck._

"_Wha-!.." Was Gunzou's immediate reaction. If even a 'Fog' heavy cruiser carried enough weapons to turn such a port into smoking ruins, he shuddered to think what a battleship could do. "D-Don't kill anyone!" The girl froze a moment before she'd have unleashed her arsenal. After a long second, she nodded slowly._

"_Understood. Adjusting the list of targets." And then around three dozens of missiles were launched, all speeding towards the fortress wall surrounding the harbor._

"_What are you doing?!" Gunzou shouted._

"_As per your order, captain, I've targeted only automated defensive turrets." The battleship's avatar brushed him off as she concentrated on getting them out into the sea..._

_**flashback end**_

**March 5, 2056; ~20 miles offshore Nagasaki**

"Something on your mind, captain?" Opening his eyes, Gunzou saw Kongou standing in front of him, watching him with something like a concern written lightly on her face.

"No, nothing, just remembering the night when we... when you had me become your captain." He replied. "You remember it too, right?" The blonde nodded as she lowered herself onto her knees to get on the same eye-level with him.

"Yes. And I'm still not sure what I had been thinking back then..." Gunzou reached to place his hand onto hers. Over the last almost two years his relationship with Kongou had changed a lot; she had warmed up towards him and even other humans quite a bit – though she still absolutely refused to have any more crew than just him, something that led him to start joking that they were a married couple – and, well, he too came to enjoy her company...

"Heh, yeah. I remember the row we had when we were deciding which side we will take." Kongou nodded. "In the end we've decided that since neither of us will switch to the other's side, we will just make our own side, haven't we?" Gunzou merely nodded in response. "Anyway, Iona-kun has just contacted me. She says captain Maruri has been waiting for your... our return most impatiently." Letting out a chuckle, the dark-haired youth replied:

"Well, let's not keep them waiting any more than necessary."


	52. HP & Freezing crossover :: Orange eyes

**Harry Potter and Freezing crossover :: Orange eyes**

* * *

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, was getting desperate. The 1991-1992 school year was to begin in mere three weeks, but he was still unable to find a single trace of Harry Potter. Sure, the boy had been missing for almost eight years already, but until now hiding his disappearance was quite easy. Now, though, everyone expected to see him among the Hogwarts' first year students... But there was no Harry Potter, and Dumbledore knew just whom wizards and witches of Great Britain will blame for this: it was him who was liable for the brat's well-being.

And let's not forget all those plans for the Greater Good that could not proceed with the last Potter off the 'chessboard', the plans that were absolutely essential for the prosperity of magic users... In other words, Dumbledore would be in a great trouble if he was unable to produce the boy – living and breathing – from somewhere before September the first.

With all of those carefully-attuned to the boy magical monitoring devices gone dead and not showing any meaningful reading, Dumbledore simply couldn't get any directions to the young Potter's current residence. Hell, even the magical tome that could find any child eligible to attend Hogwarts within the British isles had Potter's name gone from it. Wherever the brat was, finding him would likely take more time that the aged schemer had available.

But if he couldn't get to Potter's location, nothing meant that the boy himself couldn't be brought to Hogwarts. There were some very powerful – though outlawed and banned – summoning rituals, and Dumbledore had been wise enough to keep several things that ought to be strongly tied to the child in his possession. Those would serve some fine catalysts for the ritual.

After a few days of contemplating, the old warlock made his choice. The summoning ritual he was going to perform was the most powerful one; it was also the one of the less stable, though. But in Dumbledore's eyes what he gained, should the summoning be successful, greatly outweighed the cost of the ritual and the risks in case something went wrong...

* * *

Albus too-many-names Dumbledore decided to perform the summoning ritual of his choice on the midnight of August twenty fifth so that the full moon would increase his chances of success. Placing half of the potential catalysts – so that he could perform some other ritual later if this one didn't work – into the pre-prepared runic circle, the scheming warlock began walking around the said runic circle, lighting the candles one by one, all the while chanting in a language long forgotten to most people.

The chant seemed to be ridiculously long and by the time Dumbledore was finished, his old throat was most definitely dry as the ground in the middle of a desert. Yet, it seemed that it was not for naught as the runic circle began glowing in a deep red light. This light then engulfed the offered catalysts, which then dissolved into nothingness. A moment later the light died away, only to explode a moment later in a flash that could probably be seen for miles...

When his old eyes could finally see again, Dumbledore found himself looking at an eleven or maybe twelve years old boy that didn't look to very happy with being brought here... The boy had pich-black Potter-style-spiky hair, arranged into a ponytail that reached his shoulders, but his eyes most definitely weren't green. Orange. They were orange and with slitted pupils; though looking closer Dumbledore could see dots of emerald-green peppered all over the irises. The famous – or infamous – lightning bolt scar was there, but it was barely visible and if one wasn't looking specifically for it, it would most likely be missed.

The boy was dressed in a loose black T-shirt and some homey pants; though judging by an IV needle in his left hand and several visible sensors attached to the various parts of his body, Dumbledore managed to summon him out of a muggle hospital... Why the boy was there? He didn't really look like someone sick...

"What is the meaning of this?!" The boy-who-most-likely-was-Harry-Potter demanded, his glare almost causing the Hogwarts headmaster to freeze in place. Almost: he was Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard since Merlin!

"Harry, my boy..." The boy's glare intensified to the point where it began chilling the air around his abductor. Dumbledore was sure that the hair on his arms was standing on its ends now... Maybe he should be a little less familiar with the boy? For now, of course. Once he understands his place in the greater scheme of things, the aged warlock was sure, he would be an eager pawn for him to use. "Harry, I've summoned you to the place where you belong."

"I do belong not here!" The brat shouted angrily, something like bluish-green lines appearing on his neck and forearms. It also coincided with the temperature in the chamber falling even further down. "Send me back, now! Send me back!"

"You belong here, Harry." Dumbledore pushed, even though his body felt so constricted now that it was hard to even move his lips. "And I can't send you back." He received another another glare from the boy, before the feeling of being petrified with chilling cold disappeared. Interestingly enough, those lines on the Potter boy's skin disappeared as well...

"Then you better pray my mother and my sisters can't find you here." Harry said after a long moments of silence. And it was not a threat. It sounded like a promise of a great pain that would visit Dumbledore, should the brat's mother and sisters find him... Then a thought occurred to Albus. Potters had only a single child – the one he had just summoned – so who could those sisters he was speaking about be? Somehow, though, he wasn't sure he wanted to find out...

**~/ *** \~**

Even now, garbed in ridiculous robes all magicals seemed to wearing and sitting in a train that would take him (back) to Hogwarts castle, Harry was still livid. How dare that old goat-fucker abduct him from his family and bring here? At least, he got a little bit of his revenge when magic refused to accept him as 'Harry Potter', marking him as 'Harrison Lancelot' instead. The sheer amount of problems for the bearded kidnapper it was causing was funny, even if it was a little comfort for the time-space-displaced boy. He had already vowed to find a way back home on his own, whether this Dumbledore man would approve or not...

Anyhow, he needed to occupy himself for the duration of the trip, and despite his vow he had no desire to read his textbooks – he already knew that they contained nothing he could use to return 'home' anyway. This left him with only one thing left to do: reaching into one of his pockets, Harry pulled out his mobile phone.

Unlike the display-less bricks that were sold in this year 1991, his was a one of the best middle-class smartphones available in 2020 – as much as father loved him and his sister, he refused to buy them anything too expensive. This device the size of an human palm was probably more powerful than the current super-computers; and displays of the quality it had would not be invented until two decades later. Alas, the same held true for the AC adapters... Which meant that Harry had no way to charge the battery up. So, forty-eight hours of energy till god knows when... Regardless of that, the orange-eyed wizard just couldn't help but turn the phone on so that he could look through the photos of his family he had there.

As he was waiting for the device's OS to finally load – honestly one would think that in twenty first century... - when someone asked whether they could sit in his compartment. Not looking up, Harry nodded: he could not foresee any problems coming from the shy-sounding girls like the two that were now sitting on a bench across from him.

"Um... Sorry, what is this?" One of the girls asked, obviously interested in his phone. Not that he could fault her: non-magical world here had no such wonders yet, much less the outdated magical one... Looking up, he saw that the girl who had been asking him was an easy-on-the-eyes even if a bit ...wide-boned red-head. Her friend – even more shy blonde – too was looking at his phone with obvious interest, though was too shy to ask about it herself.

"Uh... This is my phone, don't think you'll find such one on sale here for some time, though." Yeah, like for thirty years. "I was about to look at the photos of my family I have here." Now, the girls, both of them, looked very confused.

"Ano... Aren't phones used to talk? Why would you look at photos with it?" Harry merely shrugged in response, while he reached for the photo album on his mobile's memory card.

"Well, it can be used to make calls too... It can do a lot of things actually; displaying photos is one of those things." With the last word he tapped on the icon, bringing the photograph of his family into the full view on the screen.

It was probably the only recent photo with his whole family on it: usually either he himself or at least one of his five sisters were at the laboratory's hospital, undergoing a medical treatment to fight the negative effects of the gene-splicing. The photo was made a week after his last birthday on the lake bear his father's home on the outskirts of Osaka.

"Wow, that's some big family." The red-haired girl commented. "But how come you all look so different..." Then she glanced beck at his face, as if to confirm that she didn't saw things the first time and his eyes were indeed as orange as they were on the photo. "Only your eyes are the same."

"We're all adopted, though father had us all undergo gene-splicing with mother's genes. Like that, we all are technically her children." It didn't look like either of the girls could really understand what he was saying, but... it was year 1991, genetics was still a new science in the mundane world; magicals might not have heard about it at all...

"Um... well... Can you tell us a little about your family?" The redhead asked. Then she added quickly: "Oh, sorry, we still haven't been introduced to each other. I'm Susan Bones and this is my best friend, Hannah Abbot." Nodding, the orange-eyed young wizard replied.

"I'm Harry Lancelot; nice to meet you." He was going to cause the old goat as much problems as possible, and refusing to be called Potter was one of the things to do to achieve that. "Anyway, these are my eldest sisters Cassandra and Chiffon." Harry said as he pointed to the blonde and brown-haired girls sitting on the small pier to the left and right from him. "And these are Lucy, Teslad and Windy... Windy May." He said as his finger ran over the three girls – with white, deep-blue and pink – hair that stood behind him and his two already-introduced 'sisters'. "This is my father, Gendo Aoi." Harry said, pointing to a fairly-handsome dark-haired oriental man in his early thirties that was standing behind he children, along with one of the most beautiful women one had ever seen.

This woman had soft and gentle smile on face; her hair was long pale-blond in color, which, along with her rather pale skin, made her look almost ethereal, like a goddess. And her eyes – orange and with slitted pupils – made it clear that she was someone more than just a human.

"And this is my mother, Maria Lancelot." Harry finished introducing his family to his two new friends.

"Wow" Susan breathed out. "Wish my family was this big..." She trailed out, obviously caught in some not-so-nice memories. "I've been raised just by my aunt."

* * *

**~/ *** Sorting *** \~**

"Damn, I wish my aunt would tell me how we will be sorted." Susan said as she, Hannah and Harry, along with the rest of the first years were standing in an antechamber, waiting for the final preparations for the sorting ceremony to be compete. A moment later they heard a rude redhead by the name Ron Weasley that had tried to boot girls out of the compartment so that he could sit with Harry say something about wrestling against a troll.

"Wonder, how strong that troll would be?" The orange-eyed wizard asked, as if thinking that something this ridiculous might be used as a challenge for some eleven-years-olds.

"Harry!" Susan hissed. "Don't be ridiculous! I'm sure it will be something like a ...puzzle? We'll have to solve. Troll will break you into half without batting an eyelash." This still didn't make the summoned boy to discard the idea of wresting against a troll. After all, he too had inherited some of his mother's strength, and he had seen her tie an armature into a knot with her bare hands without as much as a single hint of strain. And what she could do when she went all-out... She turned into a goddess of war then, instead of her normally being a goddess of beauty and compassion.

* * *

**~/ *** Frozen troll *** \~**

Despite Dumbledore and a certain Potions master going out of their way to call him Potter; and the great amount of attention his unusual eyes brought to him, Harry could say that the first two months at this magical school of Hogwarts weren't that bad. He had been sorted into house Ravenclaw and with the library available to him in the common room, he had already made the first steps towards figuring out the way to send himself back.

Of course, in every school there were people that went out their way to make your life a living hell. In Harry's case those were a blond git by the name Draco Malfoy, who decided that because of his eyes Harry was some sort of a beast that needed to be put down; and Ron Weasley, who was crudely trying to have his revenge for being refused as a friend. As if Harry would want to be friends with him after he had tried to throw Hannah and Susan out of the compartment so that he could take their place...

Anyhow, right now it was the Halloween feast, and Harry was enjoying the plentiful meal. Or he did before their scaredy-cat DADA professor ran into the great hall and shouted about some troll being loose in the dungeons. Then the man fainted! Then, Dumbledore in his infinite wisdom decided to send the students back to their common rooms, never-mind that Slytherin and Hufflepuff ones were in the aforementioned dungeons...

As the prefects were guiding the Ravenclaw students back to the tower, Harry saw a big shadow down one of the corridors lumbering somewhere. Deciding that it ought to be the troll that caused this whole ruckus, the orange-eyed wizard broke away from his housemates and followed that lumbering shadow. A corridor later, though, he was forced to abandon shadowing his 'target' as he heard a piercing girl's scream come from somewhere.

Following the sound he found himself standing in front of girls' toilet. Through the open door, he could see the hulking beast destroying the room with its club. The shrieks coming from the inside also made it clear that the troll was trying to off some girl... After a moment of thinking, Harry decided that in such a case he could be forgiven for entering girls' toilets and stepped inside.

The troll paid him no attention as it was trying to crush a bushy-haired Gryffindor girl with its club... Harry, though didn't even need to have the troll's attention. Reaching for his powers, he deployed the _**Freezing field**_, immobilizing the beast completely in a mid-swing.

"What are you waiting for? Get out of here already! I can't keep it frozen forever!" Harry shouted, bringing the girl out of her stupor. Looking up at his voice, Hermione's first reaction was still was to freak about a boy being in the girls' toilet. A moment later, though, her mind finally processed what she was seeing completely:

This strange orange-eyed boy, Harry Potter – though he always introduced himself as Harry Lancelot – was somehow keeping the troll immobilized. She didn't know how he was doing it, especially with his wand nowhere in sight, but it had to be him who was doing it. The irregular hexagonal pattern, glowing cold blue, that was under the troll's feet was without doubt produced by this boy; apparently it had to be some hidden power of his, a power that also seemed to corrupt his body too as Hermione could see glowing lines forming the same jagged hexagonal pattern on his skin. It looked almost as if he was slowly turning into a crystal...

"Stop sleeping, princess! Get the hell out of here this right now!" He ordered. And it finally occurred to the bushy-haired witch that she really should listen to him. Hurrying to get from under the sink where she had been trying to hide from the troll, Hermione dashed towards the toilet door, eager to get as far away from the troll as soon as possible.

Once she was out of the toilet, Harry stopped pushing his energy into the _**Freezing field**_ and a moment later the beast could move again. And it continued from where it had been stopped, meaning he dropped his club at the place where he had last seen the little human girl. But, of course, there was nothing but a few sinks for its club to smash. The troll looked dumbly at the spot, trying to understand where to the girl had disappeared... And Harry, who began regaining his breath – using the_** Freezing field**_ still took a lot out of him – decided that it was about time he himself disappeared from there...

The next day everyone would talk about how great Dumbledore was for defeating a troll in the second floor's corridor before it could climb all the way up to the Gryffindor or Ravenclaw common rooms and kill anyone there...

* * *

**~/ *** Harry's girlfriend *** \~**

Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts had been probably the most awful year for the orange-eyed teen. On Halloween he had been entered into a ridiculous tournament against his will. A tournament he shouldn't be participating in in the first place – not only he was too young, but also there just couldn't be four contestants in a **Tri**wizard tournament. Thankfully, the tasks were such that his lack of magical knowledge wasn't a real problem.

Dragon had been as susceptible to his _**Freezing field**_ as the troll had been three years before that. He could swim well and his super-human strength allowed him to save Susan from the bottom of the Black lake relatively easily – all he had to do was eat some gillyweed so that he could breathe underwater for an hour. The last task was a labyrinth, and after wandering in it for maybe fifteen minutes Harry had tried to forfeit – he wasn't a proper champion anyway.

Unfortunately, forfeiting wasn't all that easy as his DADA professor came charging in and tried to place him under the _**Imperius**_ curse so that he continued. It was then Harry began suspecting that something was not right with the man, so he froze him with his _**Freezing field**_ a moment before the spell could leave the man's wand. And while Harry was waiting for other officials to arrive to their location, the man morphed into someone else... As it turned out, this whole year they had been taught not by auror master Alastor Moody, but by an imposter, supposedly dead Death Eater Crouch Jr..

The task had been stopped immediately while the three headmasters made sure that no cursed objects had been placed in the labyrinth. They found one – the goblet had been turned into a portkey... The task was restarted after this unwelcomed enchantment was removed, but Harry forfeited again, allowing Cedric Diggory, the proper Hogwarts champion, to win the tournament...

* * *

Anyhow, the school year was over, and Harry decided to make the first attempt at escaping back home. Over the last four years he had managed to build a pretty-decent theory on how he could break the time-space continuum... He just hoped that the dimensional rip he'll create would land him back in his 'home' world and not somewhere else.

Entering a secluded clearing in a forest, where he had prepared the runic circles, Harry got ready to attempt a dimensional jump back home. Stepping into the center of the circle, he began the speaking chant. It was very long, and the runic circle required a shitload of energy to activate – but, then again, he wasn't changing water to wine or doing some other similarly-useless magic... Eventually, he managed to power the damn thing up, but then the things went to hell.

Instead of sending him somewhere or just doing nothing, the runic circle exploded, throwing the orange-eyed wizard halfway to the edge of the clearing. Thankfully, his body was tough enough not to get any serious damage from it. And he really could ignore the _**Freezing field**_ that had washed over him just now... Shaking his head to get rid of the nasty aftereffects, Harry looked back at the place where he had been standing moments ago.

There, floating a couple of feet off the ground was a humanoid figure. She – and the orange-eyed teen had no doubts that it was a female – had knee-long pale-blond hair, which reminded him strongly of his mother's; pale skin with bluish veins cutting through it near where it turned into bluish crystalline (and rather scandalous) 'clothes'. He couldn't see her face as it was hidden under a horned mask that had one big 'eye' in the center of 'face'.

Still, somehow he could tell that the alien was actually scared. Then again, he himself would be if he was suddenly pulled into an unfamiliar place against his will... Which reminded him that he still hadn't avenged his own summoning by the bearded goat-fucker.

And, apparently, the frown on his face that accompanied this thought was something that scared the xeno maiden even more, finally making her act. Four big portals appeared around her, spewing monstrous creatures into this world. These things looked around with their eye-less heads, before jumping at Harry, ready to tear him apart with their clawed hands. Not wanting to die yet, Harry unleashed his own _**Freezing field**_, rooting those monstrosities to ground. Then he did something that he had learned only recently and manifested very large and very sharp crystalline spikes out of the said field, goring them apart.

The power of his sudden counterattack seemed to actually shock the masked alien into losing her concentration over the portals she had opened, and those holes in the time-space continuum quickly dissipated into nothing. Realizing that using her minions won't work, the alien girl chose to use different methods of getting rid of a potential threat she saw in the dark-haired orange-eyed boy in front of her. Palming an air in front of her, she sent some invisible projectiles at him.

Dodging based on a mere premonition, Harry somehow managed to avoid most of them, though two still tore through his body. One took a sizable chink from his right shoulder, while the other created a hole in his left side. Thankfully, the power he got from his mother were more than capable of healing such wound before they became even remotely life-threatening.

And not being one not to pay for hurting him, he once again pushed his _**Freezing field**_ to its limits as he created crystalline spears that would utterly destroy the alien woman... But a mere moment before that would happen, he stopped the attack. Why it didn't occur to him before, he wasn't sure, but she was scared and likely was attacking him in some form of a misjudged self-defense. Seeing how she shrank, not wanting to be speared to death kind of confirmed that... If this all was a misunderstanding, maybe coexisting peacefully was possible?

"What should I do with you?.." Harry asked out loud as he carefully allowed the crystalline spears to shrink back into the ground – but ready to bring them back, should their potential target prove to be less than cooperative... Of course, he received no response. But then again, did her really expect English to be an interdimensional language?

Suddenly, the alien began moving, slowly rising her hands to her masked face. Not sure what to expect, the dark-haired wizard got ready to bring his crystalline spears back and rip her apart with them. That, thought, seemed to be rather unnecessary as she merely removed the mask she was wearing.

Even though Harry was quite expecting it, given her overall appearance, he was still somewhat surprised by the youthfully beautiful and quite human face that had been hidden under the mask – only a few patches of bluish crystals on her cheeks. And those eyes, orange and with slitted pupils... They were almost like his... Almost like his mothers. Was Maria Lancelot a being like the one currently levitating in front of him? As the two of them kept they eyes locked onto each other, the not-really-human wizard suddenly noticed a blush creeping onto the alien girl's face...

"Mhm?.." The dark-haired teen breathed out, trying to prompt the beauty in front of him to establish a telepathic link – if she was just like his mother, than this was something she could do.

**~/ *** \~**

A week later, professor Filius Flitwick, Harry's head of the house, found his hands full with an unusual request coming from the aforementioned teen. He wanted to have his lady living with him in the castle while he was attending school.

Normally such requests would be ignored, but the orange-eyed wizard was giving a very good reasons why his request should be fulfilled – apparently, the lady in question had some issues with communicating with others and was rather unstable and could go on rampage; and Harry was the only one who could keep her in check.

* * *

**~/ *** Reunion *** \~**

The happy family reunion between Cassandra, her three remaining sisters and her nephew Kazuya Aoi was interrupted by a call coming from the control center at West Genetics. Apparently, just now another two signatures made their appearance on the battlefield. And one of those was just like the Nova summoned Windy May had to fight not ten minutes ago. The other signature... No one actually had any idea what it was, though to sensors it appeared like a mixture between a Nova and a Limiter.

Looking around, Cassandra spotted the two silhouettes that were likely their new target slowly moving towards them through the dust that was still hanging over the battlefield. Since there ought to be no allies there, she didn't need to be particularly careful; thus, summoning her volt weapon, the legendary Pandora tried to obliterate the pair with her beam attack. Much to her surprise, it didn't seem to work as her beam of death was intercepted by the thick wall of jagged crystals that grew in front of the mysterious pair seemingly out of nowhere.

"**I know, we haven't seen each other in quite a bit, sis, but I'd be very thankful if you don't try killing my girlfriend.**" The magically-amplified voice made Cassandra freeze better that the strongest _**Freezing field**_ even could. And it looked like her three sisters were equally rooted to place with shock. The younger generation, of course, was more or less oblivious to what was going on... Then again, after Harry had disappeared one day, his existence was erased from the official documents and Gendo insisted that he wasn't mentioned to anyone not already in the know.

"Tessy, be dear and blow that smoke away?" She asked in an unsure whisper. The blue-haired legendary Pandora nodded slowly, still under the effects from hearing _that_ voice again, and charged her tonfa-like blades up, before releasing a shock-wave in the direction of the crystalline shield. The shock-wave did what Cassandra was asking for, along with finally shattering those crystals to dust as well... What the girls saw there had shocked them into statues again.

Peeking in that direction, Kazuya could see a teen, probably a year or so younger than him, with long spiky black hair in a ponytail. And that teen had orange eyes with slitted, just like these four uber-powerful Pandora that claimed to be his family. That, though, wasn't as surprising as the girl he held in his embrace. She looked just like the younger and slightly smaller version of the Nova they had fought just a little while ago. Hell, that girl even had the same crystalline gloves and boots... though she did wear a blue sundress that was definitely made by humans. And what more, she was completely docile and seemed to be quite content in the aforementioned teen's embrace.

"Harry-y-y-y-i-i-i-i!" The ridiculously-overpowered sisters ...squealed as one, before rushing towards the orange-eyed teen, their volt weapons dismissed. The teen-whose-name-apparently-was-Harry let his Nova girlfriend out of his embrace and stepped to the side. Only to be knocked off his feet by what could have been a group hug from ...his sisters? The little Nova was standing next to that pile of bodies, visibly torn between trying to save her boyfriend from been killed by suffocating-in-other-girls-bosoms and running away from the beings that could end her existence with a flick of their fingers.

"What'da hell is going on?" The recently-revived Roxanne Elipton asked as she watched this ridiculous thing unfold. Charlotte, Rana, Satellizer and Kazuya could only shrug in response as they had as much of an idea as the American redhead next to them...


End file.
